


The Fool's Journey

by lpofdestiny



Series: Miraculous Tarot [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Tarot (Divination Cards)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Lila Rossi Lies, Major Character(s), POV Multiple, Tarot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 68,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23085424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lpofdestiny/pseuds/lpofdestiny
Summary: Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Miraculous Tarot [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660057
Comments: 184
Kudos: 83





	1. The Fool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this a sequel to another work? Yes. But I promise you that you didn't miss much. If you want to read [Voyance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16695571/chapters/39155659), you are more than welcome to, but I can pretty much sum it up here (SPOILERS): Marinette, Adrien, Alya, Nino, Chloe, Nathalie, and Gabriel, at one time or another between Seasons 2 and 3, visit a mysterious woman named Madame Magda at her shop Voyance to get their tarot cards read because her cards are always right. Gabriel steals the cards as Hawk Moth, but that was all part of Madame Magda's plan. The cards have warned her of a bigger threat—a future holder of the Butterfly Miraculous—so she handed the cards over to him in order to gather information. How much she actually knows about what is actually going on though is up to interpretation.
> 
> While Voyance was more a character study and less of a story, The Fool's Journey is going to be more of a story and less of a character study. We'll see where it goes, but I currently have an outline through Chapter 8, and Lila, Kagami, and Luka will be included this time. Enjoy!
> 
> Because of Voyance, I can start off with a shout out! Yay! This chapter's shout out goes to...TiedyedTrickster! Not only did they compliment me on my in-depth research into tarot, but they also answered my comment. Sometimes it's nice to know that I'm not just shouting into the void. Anyway, hope you like this!

Lila sat on the piano bench next to Adrien and listened to him play. It was a beautiful melody, soft and airy, written specifically for her. It had been easier than she thought to convince him to write it. Sure, he had told her no at first, but she had gotten him to come around to her point of view. After all, if she was a good enough muse for his father, _surely_ she was a good enough muse for him. And wouldn’t it be good practice? Or did he not want to practice? She didn’t mind telling Mr. Agreste that. Adrien shouldn’t be forced to play the piano if he didn’t want to, but, oh, oh no, he promised to write her a song and Lila rather liked the result. She wanted to gush about it, but kept silent as her phone recorded—she couldn’t wait to post it to social media.  
  
Adrien stopped right in the middle of a crescendo and slammed the cover down over the keys. Lila flinched.  
  
“What was that!?” she wondered, careful to keep her tone innocent even though the question was a demand.  
  
“Time’s up,” said Adrien, sliding off the bench. He headed towards the bedroom door.  
  
“But-but we were having such a nice time!” Lila argued, grabbing her phone and chasing after him.  
  
Adrien held the door open for her and gestured out. “It’s been a half hour, and my father and Nathalie take my schedule very seriously.”  
  
Lila scowled because he wasn’t wrong. Anytime she tried to extend her time with Adrien, she was always found out by Nathalie or that idiotic bodyguard and escorted out of the house.  
  
She stopped the recording. “You timed it,” she accused. No wonder he had been so talkative earlier—he had been trying to put off playing for her so she wouldn’t be able to record the whole song. It didn’t really matter though since she had enough. No one was going to listen to two and a half minutes of piano anyway. Still, it was the principle of it. He was trying to keep her from getting what she wanted, and no one did that and got away with it.  
  
“Have a good night, Lila,” said Adrien with his practiced brightness.  
  
“Humph!”  
  
Lila swept out of the room, her mouth a thin line. Adrien thought he had won again, like he had at the first photoshoot Lila attended, when he convinced her to get Marinette back in school. He had much less power over her than he thought though and she was going to prove it.  
  
Adrien had done one good thing by turning her out exactly on time—no one had come up to fetch her yet, so there was no one to stop her from marching downstairs and pushing her way into Mr. Agreste’s atelier. She found the man alone, standing in the sunken area in the middle of the room. Cards were spread out before him on the glass platform that was surrounded by banks of magenta seating. He poured over them with a scowl, palms flat on either side. His head snapped up before Lila could take two steps into the room though, his cool eyes boring into her.  
  
“Miss Rossi,” he said, voice tight as he tried to be cordial, but Lila could tell that she had interrupted something important. “Do you have an update on my son?”  
  
Lila didn’t, but she knew how to obfuscate. She approached Mr. Agreste and glanced down. Based off the drawings, he was looking at tarot cards. Perfect. She could work with that.  
  
“Oh! Are you doing tarot?” she asked. Mr. Agreste glared, so Lila raised up her hands in surrender. “No judgement here. The spiritual world is very real! I would know—I’ve been reading tarot since I was old enough _to_ read. I had this amazing great aunt back in Italy who did readings for the President and she taught me everything she knew. Bless her, she died last year, but she left me her cards in her will. She said I had the aura of a great reader.”  
  
Mr. Agreste’s glare morphed into more of a discerning squint. Silence filled the cavernous atelier as the man thought over his response. He cleared his throat.  
  
“Is that so?” he wondered, his tone dangerous. “Then I’m sure you won’t mind doing a reading for me.”  
  
“I would just adore that! But I know my time here with Adrien is limited, even though I wish that weren’t the case. I was just on my way out. I was only stopping in to say goodbye to my gracious host. Have a good evening, Mr. Agreste!” With a smart nod, Lila turned and leisurely made her way back towards the door. In her head though, she counted down.  
  
_Five…Four…Three…Two…_  
  
“Wait.”  
  
A smile slowly spread across Lila’s face, but she covered it with faux innocent confusion as she turned around.  
  
“What is it, Mr. Agreste?”  
  
“I suppose I could extend your time with my son. Based off your performance as a tarot reader, of course.”  
  
“Of course!” said Lila, quick to agree.  
  
Mr. Agreste gathered up the cards into the rest of the deck and offered them up. Despite the murmurs of panic rising up in Lila’s chest, she plastered a look of sorrow on her face.  
  
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Agreste! It’s a bit of a secret, but Prince Ali of Achu is in Paris just for tonight on his way to a peace conference in Vienna and he invited me to dinner. As much as I would love to give you a reading, I really can’t disappoint a royal dignitary. I’m sure you understand.”  
  
“Tomorrow, then.”  
  
“Oh, no! Tomorrow doesn’t work either. My mom and I are hosting some guests of the embassy for the next week or so, so I’m all tied up!”  
  
“I wasn’t aware of that,” said Mr. Agreste dryly. “So you won’t be able to spend any time with my son?”  
  
Even though she was caught, Lila nodded. Some sacrifices were necessary for her to get what she wanted. “Yes, I just found out. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it. But I promise— _promise_ —to give you a reading the instant my schedule opens up.”  
  
Mr. Agreste put the deck down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Very well. You know how to contact me. Have a good night, Miss Rossi.”  
  
“And you as well, Mr. Agreste.”  
  
Lila left the mansion in high spirits. Even though Mr. Agreste was far harder to fool than most of her targets, she’d still managed to manipulate him in her favor. So what if she had to learn to give a tarot reading? It was just another form of astrology, right? All she had to do was tell Mr. Agreste things that were vague enough for him to ascribe his own meaning to and she would be spending more time with Adrien in no time.  
  
Knowing her mom wasn’t going to be home until after nine, Lila decided to forgo going home to an empty house to heat up leftovers and instead looked up the closest tarot reader. Her phone let her known there was a place called _Voyance_ on Rivoli Street that was within walking distance. There didn’t seem to be a website, but there were a ton of five-star reviews raving about the proprietor, a Madame Magda. Annoyed, Lila signed on to one of her many email accounts to write a one-star review as she made her way over the Seine in the direction of the Tuileries.  
  
_I don’t know what these other people are talking about (I suspect they are friends of the owner or they were paid—so many perfect reviews seems suspicious), but I had an awful time at_ Voyance _. The woman behind the counter was rude and dismissive of my needs. The shop was also really dirty and smelled terrible. DO NOT COME HERE._  
  
As soon as she submitted it though, she wished she hadn’t. In the time it had taken her to write up the review, Adrien had posted to his Instagram account. It was a video of him playing piano. Lila tapped it to turn on the volume. He was playing her song! Except…it wasn’t her song. According to the description, he had written it for Ladybug, but tagged her to thank her for her encouragement of the idea. Lila’s body went rigid and she growled, nearly pitching her phone. He wasn’t going to get away with this! She shoved her phone into her bag and quickened her pace.  
  
Lila found _Voyance_ easily enough. The door was propped open with a sandwich sign with the store hours on it, along with a dumb joke (What do you call a midget fortuneteller on the run from the law? A small medium at large!) Two women swathed in scarves walked out chatting animatedly while they swung their bags. Lila slipped in behind them.  
  
_Voyance_ was a bohemian clutter of everything—crystals, incense, old books, new books, candles, fabrics, oddities. It was like walking into a circus of things. The center table was proliferated with all sorts of steampunk paraphernalia, apparently there for a limited time only. Lila pretended to examine a selection of pocket watches as she took stock of her surroundings. In the back, between two bookcases, was a bejeweled curtain with a rope in front of it. Balanced on the rope was a sign: “Tarot readings have been discontinued for the foreseeable future.” She wondered why.  
  
Besides Lila, there was one other customer in the shop, who was currently being helped by an absolute giantess of a woman. Judging by the woman’s Moroccan inspired teal caftan with gold embroidery, paired with a matching headscarf, she was the Madame Magda from the reviews. One had said she was ‘larger than life,’ but Lila thought the term was figurative.  
  
“Might I recommend sandalwood?” she was saying with a loud, booming voice. “It doesn’t get as much recognition, but it can also have sedative effects, and helps increase your amount of non-REM sleep.” She dipped a stick in a little glass vial and held it out for the customer to smell.  
  
Almost as if she could sense Lila spying, Madame Magda turned to look at her, so Lila quickly scurried off to the far corner of the shop. She picked up a book on something called the Primal Zodiac, which combined eastern with western zodiac. She looked herself up. She was born in the year of the snake and was a Scorpio. Apparently, she was an Anglerfish. As she read further, she was both perturbed and engrossed by the entry.  
  
“Can I help you, darling?”  
  
Lila squeaked and held the book up as if to hide behind it. The other customer was gone and Madame Magda was looming over her. Lila realized the woman was hairless, a fact she had disguised with makeup and distance.  
  
“Didn’t mean to cause alarm!” said the woman. “I just noticed you looking at me. Do you need help finding anything, my dear?”  
  
“You’re…speaking to me,” said Lila. Madame Magda’s face scrunched up, puzzled. “The great Madame Magda…is speaking to me!”  
  
The woman relaxed with a toothy grin. “The one and only!”  
  
“It’s so wonderful to meet you!” Lila danced behind the book before slipping it into her bag, rushing forward, and offering her hand. Madame Magda clasped it with all the wholesomeness of a classic schmuck. Lila continued. “An honor. Really! Some of my friends told me about you and I’ve been wanting to come in for such a long time, but every time I went up to the door—and I love the name, by the way. _Voyance_. So posh. So… _mysterious_ —I don’t know. I’d get nervous.”  
  
“No reason for that!”  
  
“But what if you say no!?”  
  
“No to what?”  
  
“Teaching me tarot.”  
  
Madame Magda threw her head back, her laughter like she was practicing to be a mall Santa. “Ho, ho, ho! As long as your mind is open and your heart is pure, I have no reason to say no! What is your name, darling?”  
  
Lila had several names in her back pocket at all times. “Veronica Bianchi.”  
  
“Well, Veronica, I’m about to close up shop soon anyway, so your timing could not be better! You put that book back and we can get started on your first lesson.”  
  
The woman floated away while Lila froze, eye twitching. She had to admit that the theft had been pretty bold, even for her. Maybe she was getting too complacent.  
  
Lila quickly put the Primal Astrology book back on top of the stack where she had found it.  
  
“Silly me!” she said, chasing after Madame Magda. “I didn’t even realize I had done that.”  
  
“Happens to the best of us,” said the woman over her shoulder with a showy wink. “Now, it’s been a while since I’ve given lessons, but my price is still the same: One tarot deck.” She gestured to the middle two shelves of a bookcase, where different types of tarot decks were displayed—large and small, decorative and plain, shiny and matte, colorful and monochromic. “And your time, of course,” she added.  
  
Lila had money, of course, but she didn’t want to spend it on this. “Oh…” she said, face falling, bottom lip quivering.  
  
Madame Magda cocked her head to one side. “What’s wrong, darling?”  
  
Lila forced the tears to come, as small as they were. “I didn’t know this would cost anything! I donated the last of my allowance to an animal shelter and I’m not sure when I’m going to get more. Or even if! My mom was admitted to the hospital today, you see, and it’s just the two of us…”  
  
“How terrible!”  
  
“That’s why I wanted to learn how to read tarot. For my mom. But it looks like I’ll have to come back later, when I have the money…” With a heavy sigh, Lila turned away and headed toward the door, dragging her feet all the while.  
  
_Five…Four…Three…Two…  
  
_“Veronica!” Madame Magda called out.  
  
Lila made a show of rubbing her face, even though her tears had dried the instant Madame Magda was no longer looking. She turned back. “Yes, Madame Magda?”  
  
“Why don’t I hire you to help me with inventory, darling? The Rider-Waite is only fourteen euros. You can have it paid off within the hour.”  
  
Inside, Lila seethed. _My mom is dying for all you know, you crazy hag, and you want me to work for you!?_ Those weren’t the words that came out though as she clasped her hands together and held them to her cheek.  
  
“That’s so kind of you, Madame Magda, but I’m really busy with school and tutoring a friend and volunteer work and visiting my mom in the hospital.”  
  
“Goodness! How do you have time for lessons, then?”  
  
Caught, Lila bit down on her tongue. While she didn’t want to spend her allowance on cards when there were cute purses to buy, she also didn’t want to find another tarot shop, so she jammed her hand into the pocket of her leather jacket. Her eyes widened and she gasped, pulling out a neatly folded twenty.  
  
“I completely forgot I had money in this jacket!” she exclaimed.  
  
“Miss Fortune comes to you in your moment of need!” said Madame Magda, seemingly equally excited. “Pick a deck out and I’ll ring you up, darling.”  
  
Lila ended up choosing the cheap Rider-Waite deck Madame Magda had mentioned. It looked the most similar to the one she saw Mr. Agreste using anyway. While the shopkeeper put her head down to write out Lila’s receipt though, Lila glared daggers at the sun pin that held the women’s headscarf in place. While Madame Magda seemed to believe everything Lila had said, she had also avoided Lila’s manipulations, and that left Lila feeling…unsettled.  
  
Once Madame Magda locked up the shop for the night, she took Lila to the back room. It was as stark as the shop was fanciful. Beneath the harsh fluoresces, the woman began to explain about the history of tarot. Disappointingly, it turned out the cards weren’t used to tell fortunes or futures, but to serve as guidance. There were two types of readings—open readings and question readings, but the questions being answered could never be yes or no. There was all this mumbo-jumbo about mindset as well. When all of that was finally out of the way though, Madame Madga began to teach Lila about her deck. It was split into major and minor arcana, with the minor arcana split further into four suites—wands, swords, cups, and pentacles. Since they were going to cover the major arcana first, Madame Magda lined all twenty-two of them up. One caught Lila’s eye, a black card called The Tower.  
  
“The major arcana has a very specific order, marked by roman numerals. It starts with this card.” Madame Magda slid forward the one on Lila’s far left. It depicted a garishly-dress young man with a bindle, a small white dog yapping at his heels. Sure enough, there was a zero at the top of it.  
  
“The Fool,” Lila read out loud.  
  
“The Fool is the first card in what is known as The Fool’s Journey, a story used to describe the order of the major arcana. It starts with The Fool heading off on his journey…” She ran a finger down the line and then tapped the last card, The World. “…and ends with his return.”  
  
“Shouldn’t it end with Death?”  
  
“Death in tarot is not the end, merely a transition. That is why it is in the middle of The Fool’s Journey.”  
  
“But what does The Fool’s Journey have to do with reading tarot?”  
  
“When all is said and done, tarot is about helping whoever is being read understand their life. And life is full of journeys. Why, you’re on a journey right now, aren’t you, Veronica? You are The Fool.”  
  
This sentence got Lila’s heckles up. “Excuse me!?”  
  
“You’re new. Open. Spontaneous. You are ready and willing to learn tarot, but completely unaware of all the hazards and pain that lie ahead. You are oblivious to how close you are to the edge of a cliff. Will it be worth the risk? Or will you meet your downfall?”  
  
Lila stood suddenly, pushing her chair back. She wasn’t going to just sit there and allow this smug toad of a woman to call her names, but she also knew better than to burn her bridges. “I forgot I have another appointment,” she said, gathering her cards together and grabbing her purse. It wasn’t her best lie—it lacked panache—but it was all she could think of to say.  
  
“Not a problem! Whenever you have a free moment and the shop’s not busy, I’d be happy to continue our lessons. Give my regards to your mom.”  
  
Lila wrinkled her brow for a moment, then remembered her lie. “You are too sweet! I promise I will.”  
  
She was almost to the door when she heard Madame Magda directly behind her. “Allow me to walk you out, darling.”  
  
Lila tried not to let her body sag. She was hoping to grab that Primal Astrology book on her way out.

* * *

In retrospect, Lila realized she should’ve just ordered some tarot cards online and left Madame Magda out of the equation entirely. The Internet taught her just fine without insulting her or making her feel unsettled. Journey? What journey? Lila felt ready to give readings after a week of intense study. Basically, all she had to do to be successful was tell people what they wanted to hear, which was exactly what she did anyway. Before she tried her hand with Mr. Agreste though, she wanted to practice on someone first.  
  
After much thought, Lila settled on Chloé Bourgeois. Of all her classmates, she was the most like Mr. Agreste: rich, powerful, possessive, and harsh. Both were a bit harder than normal to manipulate too and hated to be made to look like fools. Chloé had not forgotten the whole ‘magic command’ incident, so Lila was not surprised to see the girl’s guard go up when she approached her at her desk before school one day.  
  
“What do you want?” Chloé demanded.  
  
“Hi, Lila!” chirruped Sabrina next to her.  
  
“Hi, Sabrina!” returned Lila. “Did you do something different with your hair? It looks amazing!”  
  
“It looks the same as it always does,” insisted Chloé, which was true.  
  
“Well, _I_ think it looks amazing,” Lila assured Sabrina. The lackey was only a few compliments away from switching allegiances, she was sure of it. Chloé was her target today though, so she turned back to her, faking concern. “Is everything okay? You seem like you’ve been in a bit of a sour mood lately.”  
  
“She’s been upset ever since—”  
  
“Shut up, Sabrina!” said Chloé.  
  
“I want to help,” Lila insisted. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “If you need advice, I can give you a tarot reading.”  
  
“You? A tarot reader?” Chloé scoffed. “Since when?”  
  
“It’s not something I often share with other people, but you two can keep a secret, right?”  
  
Sabrina nodded fervently. “Of course we can!”  
  
“I have what they call…The Gift.”  
  
Sabrina gasped, wide-eyed. “The Gift?”  
  
“Yes. I inherited it from my great-great-grandmother, Esmeralda the True. When I give a tarot card reading, it's never wrong.”  
  
Chloé drew back and wrinkled her nose. “That sounds ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous!”  
  
Lila had been ready for this response. “I haven’t lied to you yet, Chloé. You know that.”  
  
It took every ounce of willpower in Lila’s body not to laugh out loud as she watched Chloé’s face twist. She could only imagine the mental battle waging in the girl’s head. Yes, Lila’s ‘magic command’ had made Chloé look like a fool, but it had worked, hadn’t it? Ladybug had come, just as Lila said she would.  
  
“Fine!” spit out Chloé, like it was a bitter pill. “You can have the honor of giving me a reading during lunch today. We’ll see about this ‘gift’ of yours.”  
  
“Oh, goody!” said Sabrina, clapping her hands together.  
  
Chloé rolled her eyes. “This is private business. You’re not invited.”  
  
The redhead crumbled, but nodded.

* * *

At a table specially reserved for Chloé in the far corner of the Le Grand Paris’s restaurant, far from other patrons, Lila and Chloé finished their lunch. A waiter standing nearby jumped as soon as he saw Chloé put her fork down and he whisked away their dishes, leaving nothing but the blank white tablecloth behind.  
  
“See to it that we’re not bothered,” Chloé demanded as the man tottered away with everything balanced on his arm.  
  
“Yes, Miss Bourgeois.”  
  
Lila wished she had the kind of money Chloé did. That kind of power was wasted on a girl like her. She was so petty, so small-minded. She didn’t even realize what she had—she just thought that she did.  
  
“Hand them over,” Chloé said, making a grabbing motion with her hand. Lila stared, disgruntled. “This isn’t my first tarot reading,” Chloé bragged. “I know I’m supposed to imbue the cards with my energy or whatever by shuffling them.”  
  
This came as a bit of a surprised to Lila, but she covered smoothly. “Of course!”  
  
Lila made a show of pulling out her deck and handing them to Chloé. Chloé sifted through them, as if to make sure each one was accounted for, before proceeding with some very angry shuffling. She glared intensely at Lila the entire time. Lila watched carefully with a benign smile on her face. Finally, after what felt like forever, Chloé slammed them down on the table between them.  
  
“Tell me my future,” she commanded.  
  
“You know that’s not how it works, Chloé,” Lila admonished, picking up the deck. “We need to decide on your spread.”  
  
“If you really had a gift, you’d know what spread I need.”  
  
Lila tempered her smile. “You’re right. You need a five-card advice spread.”  
  
Beneath the table, Lila pulled the five cards she had already selected for the spread out of the pocket of her dress. She had actually gone ahead and purchased a second Rider-Waite deck, the exact same as the first, for this express purpose. With a bit of sleight of hand, she placed them on top of the deck Chloé had just shuffled. Five extra cards didn’t make much of a visual difference in a pack of seventy-eight. Even though Chloé was watching, she didn’t even notice.  
  
Lila pulled from the top of the deck, lining up five cards in a row face-down. She had practiced this on her bed at home several times to make sure it always turned out right.  
  
“It’s a really simple spread,” Lila explained. “Energy flows from the card in Position 1…” She pointed at the card on Chloé’s far left. “...to the right.” She moved her finger along the line. “This makes it clear what the influences are, and how to take action and move forward.”  
  
“Just flip the first card already,” Chloé insisted, tapping her foot and crossing her arms. “I don’t have all day.”  
  
Lila did as she was asked. As intended, the first card was The Sun. Chloé leaned forward with interest, eyes lighting up at her favorite color. The white horse, the carefree child, the field of sunflowers, and, of course, the giant yellow sun, painted a pleasing picture.  
  
“What amazing energy you have!” gushed Lila. “Position 1 is you as you are, and you are The Sun! Confident. Great! _Exceptional_.”  
  
Chloé fought hard to hold back a smirk. “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far…but, please, continue if you must.”  
  
“You, Chloé Bourgeois, see the world clearly. You understand the truth. Anyone would be blessed to have you in their life, to call you a partner or a friend.”  
  
“Precisely!”  
  
“This is a great start to the spread, but let’s see what Position 2 has to say. This card answers the question, ‘Are you currently on the correct path?’”  
  
Lila flipped the next card in line, revealing more yellow, this time in the form of a horse blanket. A man in a scarlet cloak, head wreathed with laurels, rode atop the horse in question. Lila had specifically selected this card because it reinforced The Sun. When Chloé saw it though, she slammed her hands on the table and stood up to get a closer look.  
  
“I know this card,” she said. “It’s about winning.”  
  
Lila tamped down on her annoyance. She was supposed to read the cards, not Chloé, but she covered. “That’s right!” she cheered as Chloé lowered herself back into her seat. “The Six of Wands can totally be about winning. Since it is a reinforcing card with The Sun though, the focus is more on acclaim and prominence. It’s about people praising you because you are important. Because you are right. This leads me to believe that the current path you are on is the correct one. Whatever you’re doing, keep it up and success will be yours!”  
  
Here Chloé seemed less sure, her face faltering. “But—”  
  
“But success is never without obstacles!” Lila was quick to point out. “That’s what the card in Position 3 tells us.”  
  
She flipped it before there was any more dissent, revealing a young king on a brass thrown, his scepter a walking stick. She opened her mouth to start to explain all about the King of Wands only for Chloé to growl.  
  
“Ladybug…” the girl seethed.  
  
Lila felt a warm glow gather inside of her. Finally, someone who hated little miss goody two-shoes as much as she did! But while Ladybug was the conclusion she was hoping Chloé would draw from the King of Wands, she still was forced to play it safe. Hating Ladybug was not a popular platform.  
  
“What makes you say that?” she wondered innocently.  
  
“I had it all!” said Chloé. Her hands curled into fists. “The Bee Miraculous! Faithful servants! The Miracle Box! But Ladybug just had to come and take it all away. She never wanted me to have the Bee Miraculous. She only ever wanted to hold me back, to stop me from being exceptional!”  
  
“Well, the King of Wands can stand for someone who is forceful…”  
  
“Exactly! You get it. Ladybug _forced_ me to join up with Hawk Moth. I had no other choice when she wouldn’t give me the Bee Miraculous. And after everything I did for her as Queen Bee!”  
  
Since Chloé seemed to be on a role, Lila went on to the next card. She pretended to act as if the mysteries of the universe had been revealed to her upon seeing a cloud full of golden chalices. A silhouette of a man gazed upon them, each one offering him something different. “I see!” said Lila. “Look here in Position 4—the Seven of Cups. This is what is helping you.”  
  
“Helping me?”  
  
“If Ladybug is your obstacle, then the Seven of Cups is how you get past her. The Seven of Cups can stand for all sorts of stuff—dreams, possibilities, getting the chance to indulge yourself—if only you let things go.”  
  
“I’ve let go, all right. Let go of Ladybug! I can’t believe I ever wanted to be like her! Oh, sure, she acts all heroic and righteous, but it’s like you said—I’m The Sun. I understand the truth. Ladybug is selfish! She won’t share what she has, she picks terrible Miraculous holders—myself not inculded, and she treats me like garbage. But I finally get it now. She was threatened by me. That’s why she never wanted my help. She was afraid that I would steal her thunder. That’s no hero. I don’t care what other people say!”  
  
“The cards are telling me you made the right decision.”  
  
“I knew it!” Chloé crowed. “But what about the last one?” she added, almost casually, as if she were fooling anyone.  
  
“Oh, Position 5?” asked Lila, proverbially dangling it in front of Chloé’s hungry eyes. She could get used to this. “Position 5 tells me how you can move forward from here. How can we minimize the obstacle but maximize your ability to get past it?”  
  
Flipping the card revealed the most yellow one yet. The handsome man in golden armor, the two sphinxes, the town in the background—If Chloé viewed herself as any card, it would be this one.  
  
“This is The Chariot,” said Lila in a hushed tone. “And do you know what this tells me?”  
  
“No…what?”  
  
“You are a leader, Chloé. You know what you want, so go get it! Nobody, not even Ladybug, can stop you. This reinforces the Six of Wands as well. You will triumph as long as you are self-confident. Victory is within your reach.”  
  
Chloé’s eyes lit up. “You’re right! I’m not going to let some spandex-suited insect shake my belief in myself. I am and always will be good enough to wield the Bee Miraculous—good enough to be in charge of the whole Miracle Box! I don’t care what Ladybug or anybody else says! I don’t have to change. I don’t have to go on some _journey_ …”  
  
Though Lila had kept herself composed for the entire reading, she flinched at Chloé’s wording. Luckily, the girl was too busy digging through her white-quilted Chanel handbag to notice. She pulled out a card, the sun catching its gold foil for a moment before she ripped it in two and tossed the pieces into the air. A waiter swept in to clean them up, but not before Lila was able to glimpse what it was. Chloé had apparently been carrying around a tarot card. The Knight of Cups to be exact. From what Lila knew, the Knight of Cups could stand for empathy, romance, and understanding or resentment, moodiness, and jealousy, depending on positive or negative forces. Lila wanted to ask Chloé about it, but held her tongue. She wouldn't get a straight answer anyway.  
  
“You’re not so bad, Lila,” Chloé admitted. “You really do have The Gift.”  
  
“You really, truly think so?” wondered Lila. “I was worried you wouldn’t believe me. But you’ll keep it a secret, won’t you?”  
  
“My lips are sealed!”  
  
Lila nearly rolled her eyes. Of course Chloé's lips were sealed. She didn’t like to share any more than Ladybug did.

* * *

Lila waited in the shadows of the school after class had ended for the day, watching as Chloé’s limo pulled away from the curb. Sabrina burst through the doors and tumbled down the steps, papers and pens flying as she tried to flag it down.  
  
“Wait-wait-wait-wait!” she cried to no avail. When she got to the street, all that was left were an empty parking space and exhaust fumes. She coughed on them as she tried to fight back her tears.  
  
Lila had noticed how much Chloé hated waiting. If Sabrina wasn’t with her, she’d leave the girl behind in a heartbeat. All it took was Lila stealing Sabrina’s history book and putting it in the library to make it happen.  
  
Lila strolled down the steps past Marinette and Alya. She could feel Marinette’s eyes on her, but ignored her. She currently wasn’t Lila’s target.  
  
“Are you okay, Sabrina?” she asked the redhead with faux concern.  
  
The girl straightened her back and blinked her eyes dry. “Everything’s fine. I-I told Chloé…it’s such a nice day, I think I’ll walk home.”  
  
“Normally Adrien gives me a ride home, but if you need a walking buddy, I’d be happy to join you.”  
  
“Really!?”  
  
“Anyone would be lucky to walk with you, Sabrina.”  
  
The two set off, Lila casting a casual glance over her shoulder and waving at Marinette, whose eyes had never left her. The sweetest part of her life right now was that Marinette could see right through her and yet no one believed her.  
  
“So…did Chloé tell you about our reading?” Lila asked, hiking up her backpack a little.  
  
Sabrina looked down. “Um…no. She said it was private and I have to respect her privacy.”  
  
Lila bit back on her smile. Perfect. She could definitely work with this. “I guess she’s had a reading before. She showed me a tarot card she’d been carrying around.”  
  
“The Knight of Cups!? But I thought…” Sabrina drifted off.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Sabrina remained silent, so Lila offered her most winsome and assuring smile. “It’s okay, Sabrina. You can trust me. I’m your friend.”  
  
“She...she said it was special, that she’d only share it with me.”  
  
“Not anymore. I watched her tear it up.”  
  
“No, Chloé would never! That card was a gift from Madame Magda. She said it was her motivation.”  
  
Lila froze. Sabrina continued walking a couple more steps before noticing. She turned to look back, eyebrows knotting in confusion.  
  
“What is it?” she wondered.  
  
Lila forced out a breezy laugh. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just remembered I have all these chores to do when I get home, not to mention homework, and I still really haven’t recovered from that nasty hit Marinette gave me in PE. I’m sure it was an accident, but I sometimes can’t help but feel that she has it out for me, you know? But I would hate to think poorly of her. She seems so nice to everyone else.”  
  
“I can do that stuff for you, Lila!” volunteered Sabrina.  
  
“Are you sure? I know that’s asking a lot of you…”  
  
“You’ve been so nice to me, it’s really the least I can do!”  
  
Normally this kind of offer of servitude would please Lila, but the unease that had settled in the pit of her stomach upon hearing Madame Magda’s name was making her feel nauseous instead. Who was this woman? What had she told Chloé? Lila guessed it didn’t matter since she had Chloé eating out of the palm of her hand now and never intended to set foot in _Voyance_ again. But Lila was nothing if not an intuitive person. She couldn’t help but feel like she had stepped on a land mind, and the moment she shifted, everything would come tumbling down around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: "I Need Advice!" Tarot Spread
> 
> https://mywanderingfool.com/tarot/tarot/i-need-advice-tarot-spread/


	2. The Magician and The High Priestess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all you readers are doing well. This is a weird time to be alive right now. Some of you might be out of work because of COVID-19 or know someone who has it. I hope things get better! Since I'm working from home and don't have a lot to do, maybe I'll be able to update this more frequently. The Miraculous Tarot series is easy to write, and I try to keep the chapters at 10ish pages (Last chapter was 15 to get the story rolling), so it has a relatively quick posting schedule. I hope you're all enjoying it so far!
> 
> This chapter's shoutout goes to...Gullwhacker! I love a first commenter. It takes a certain level of bravery and I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you. You can see how well Lila's deck-stacking works in this chapter ;-)

Lila hit the little red button on the callbox next to the Agreste’s grandiose gates. A panel immediately opened up above it and out popped a camera eye on a stalk. It invaded Lila’s personal space, but she just closed her eyes and waved, a big smile plastered across her face.  
  
“Hello there! Lila Rossi to see Mr. Agreste!”  
  
The camera retracted immediately and the electronic locks on the gate released. Lila pushed her way into the courtyard and marched across the flagstone. Today, she was a girl on a mission. Was she nervous about giving Mr. Agreste a tarot reading? A little bit. But she never let her nerves get the better of her, or she would never be able to get away with all her lies. It was all about confidence.  
  
Mr. Agreste’s assistant Nathalie was there to greet Lila at the door. Lila has seen through the woman’s cold exterior almost immediately—she had a soft spot for Adrien, like almost everyone else in the boy’s life. Pair that with her fear of letting Mr. Agreste down and she was far easier to manipulate than Lila would’ve originally suspected. After the woman got reprimanded for allowing Lila into the Agreste home the first time though, she always had her guard up. Lila tried to wiggle through it multiple times but to no avail. Lila suspected it was only because Mr. Agreste held her in such high esteem that Nathalie treated her courteously.  
  
“Miss Rossi…so kind of you to come assist Mr. Agreste,” she said, her voice lacking intonation. It was a subtle way of showing her annoyance.  
  
“…Lila? What are you doing here?”  
  
Lila looked behind Nathalie to find Adrien with his eyebrow raised. He had just come up from the basement, his fencing bag slung over his shoulder. His bodyguard trailed him like a shadow.  
  
“Hi, Adrien!” said Lila, delighted, but the boy was less so.  
  
“I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow,” he said.  
  
“That’s so sweet of you to keep track of the days until we're together again! But I’m actually here to meet with your father.”  
  
“This way, Miss Rossi,” said Nathalie, leading the way over to Mr. Agreste atelier, but though Lila followed her, she just couldn’t help herself as she continued.  
  
“He’s heard about my skills and wants me to do a private tarot reading for—”  
  
“Miss Rossi!” admonished Nathalie, her bangs falling out of place and her voice getting huffy. Seemed Lila has touched a nerve. “This is a private matter that you’d do well not to share.”  
  
“A tarot reading!?” Adrien took a couple steps towards them. “But I thought Father—”  
  
Nathalie cut him off. “I won’t be speaking any further on this matter.” She glared at Lila. “And neither will Miss Rossi.”  
  
Lila shrugged. She didn’t know what the big deal was, but she could see that her discretion would be valued.  
  
Nathalie ushered Lila into the atelier and gently closed the door behind them. Mr. Agreste was at his standing desk, immersed in his design work. Nathalie cleared her throat to get his attention, but, when that didn’t work, she went up to him.  
  
“Lila Rossi to see you, sir,” she said quietly, but thanks to the acoustics in the room and exceptionally good ears, Lila overheard. Mr. Agreste’s eyes sidled over to first Nathalie and then to Lila. Lila pretended to be mesmerized by the pictures of Adrien hanging on the wall. Out of the corner of her eye though, she saw Nathalie steal herself and speak up again in the same hushed tone. “I really think you should reconsider—”  
  
“That will be all, Nathalie. Thank you.”  
  
Mr. Agreste’s words were not loud, but they were sharp and definitive. There was no room for argument and Nathalie knew it. Jaw set with a grimace, she nodded and left the room with her eyes on the floor. Lila was only just barely able to hide her smile.  
  
“Over here, Miss Rossi,” instructed Mr. Agreste, gesturing to the stairs that led down into the sunken sitting area of the atelier. Lila did as she was told. Mr. Agreste went down the steps on the other side of his work station, the glass platform between them.  
  
Lila set her leather bag down on the magenta seating. “First of all, I’d like to express what an honor it is to do a tarot reading for a celebrity such as yourself,” she began. “You can trust that your reading will be 100% confidential.”  
  
“I expect nothing less.”  
  
A chill ran down Lila spine, but she ignored it by digging through her bag for her deck. Her pre-selected cards were already in her pocket. “Have you thought about spread?” she wondered. “I think it’s always best to start off simple. Let’s do a three card career success—”  
  
“You can put those away,” said Mr. Agreste bluntly. He slipped his deck out of the pocket of his suit jacket, placed it down on the glass, and tapped it with his finger. “You will be using these cards for your reading.”  
  
Lila paused, watching her whole plan go up in smoke, then looked down at her own deck. She had weathered all her cards so they looked older than they really were. “But…Mr. Agreste, these are my great aunt’s cards!”  
  
“I don’t care.”  
  
Lila really should’ve known better than to use sentimentality. She tried a different tract. “I’m not familiar with your deck. It might obscure the reading.”  
  
“Then perhaps you are not as good as you previously claimed.”  
  
“I would never lie to you, Mr. Agreste! It’s because I’m so good that I know there’s something…off about your deck. That’s why you’ve been upset with your readings so far.”  
  
Lila was absolutely sure this lie would appease Mr. Agreste. She knew it was exactly what he wanted to hear. But though he seemed to weigh it a bit longer than her previous two excuses, he still dismissed it.  
  
“Miss Rossi, I hope you don’t take me for a fool,” he said. “I thought you cared about spending more time with my son.”  
  
“I do!” insisted Lila, suddenly finding herself on the defensive. She didn’t like it.  
  
“Then you will use my deck. Understood?”  
  
Usually, when Lila was backed into a corner, she was able to worm her way out with even more lies, but that was with the aid of sympathy or idiocy (really, they were one in the same). In this situation though, neither was available to her, so she was just going to have to do what she always did against Ladybug—play meek. That way, Mr. Agreste would lower his guard and she would be free to manipulate the situation in another way.  
  
“Of course, Mr. Agreste,” she said, shoving her cards back into her bag.  
  
Though a little hesitant, Lila picked up Mr. Agreste’s deck and had a look. Though similar in iconography to her Rider-Waite deck, this one was actually old. Even if it was well-maintained, the edges of the cards were soft from constant use, and a little grubby too. The pictures were painted on with an unsteady hand, resulting in spindly figures and shaky scenes. Nothing about the cards was pretty. Lila thought a man of Gabriel’s discernment would have better taste.  
  
“What a unique deck!” she tried, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Where did you get it?”  
  
“It’s a family heirloom,” said Mr. Agreste. “You will use it to perform a question reading for me.”  
  
“What’s the question?”  
  
The man took of his glasses, pulled his pocket square, and buffed out a smudge. He put them back on, cold eyes magnified as he stared Lila down.  
  
“What am I doing wrong?”  
  
“I…I’m sorry. What are you doing wrong?” Lila repeated.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“What are you doing wrong with what?” His life? His fashion empire? His son? (She hoped it wasn’t with women. That would just be awkward.) Lila couldn’t work with nothing. What kind of spread was she supposed to use? She only had a handful memorized and all of them depended on more information than that.  
  
“The cards will know what I mean,” was all the man said though and Lila realized she was in trouble. She needed a lie, stat. It was the only way she was going to be able to extricate herself from this situation where she had quickly found herself out of her depth.  
  
“I absolutely hate to do this now, but, uh, may I go freshen up, please?” she asked, squirming a little for good measure.  
  
Mr. Agreste squinted at her, but nodded. As Lila speed-walked back towards the steps though, he called her back.  
  
“Leave the cards.”  
  
“Oh! Right!” Lila forced a laugh and put the cards down. She had honestly forgotten she was holding them, which was rare for her. She really was off her game.  
  
This was her plan: Go to the restroom, pretend to throw up, then return to Mr. Agreste with the sad news that she wasn’t feeling well and would have to postpone his reading. It wasn’t the best lie, and it would only buy her a day at the most, but it was all she could come up with on such short notice. As Lila crossed the cavernous foyer though, she nearly bumped into Nathalie coming around the staircase.  
  
“Miss Rossi!” said the woman, adjusting her glasses as she lowered her tablet. “I thought you were meeting with Mr. Agreste. How is everything proceeding?”  
  
“I…” Lila was suddenly reminded of her conversation with Sabrina the day before. In a way, Nathalie was to Mr. Agreste what Sabrina was to Chloé—a confidant, so willing to serve. If Lila played her cards just right, she might just be able to salvage her situation after all. “I’m sorry. That is confidential information,” she insisted, drawing to her full height.  
  
“I am very aware of Mr. Agreste’s issue,” said Nathalie.  
  
“I don’t think you are.”  
  
“Has it changed? I thought he was just having trouble reading the cards. They never make sense to him.”  
  
_What is he doing wrong reading his tarot cards!_ Lila realized, eyes glittering. She could do this. She just needed some time, and she was about to get some.  
  
“I really don’t want to keep Mr. Agreste waiting,” said Lila. “I was just on my way to freshen up.”  
  
Nathalie backed up a few paces and gestured in the direction of the first floor toilet. Lila hurried on, turning on the light and locking herself in the room. Back against the door, she slid down it as she pulled out her phone and began to search for a possible spread. There were a lot of options, but she finally found a shorter one she liked and committed it to memory. The spread wasn’t the issue though, but the cards. How was she going to stack the deck without Mr. Agreste knowing? But she picked out the ones she wanted anyway and memorized their order too: Three of Pentacles, Six of Pentacles, Page of Pentacles, Ten of Wands, Six of Wands, and…The Fool. Lila grimaced. She didn’t want to use that card, but it represented blind faith, and that’s exactly what she wanted Mr. Agreste to have in her by the end of this reading.  
  
Closing out the Internet, Lila realized almost ten minutes had past. She hustled to get back to Mr. Agreste’s atelier. The man had not moved from his position since she left him. He was like a fashionable mannequin.  
  
“Everything okay, Miss Rossi?” he asked her, raising an eyebrow much like his own son.  
  
“I got a call from my mom,” she lied as she made her way down to Mr. Agreste’s level. “Thank you for your patience! Are you ready to get started?”  
  
Without taking his eyes off Lila, Mr. Agreste took up his deck and began to shuffle it. He wasn’t angry like Chloé, but slow and methodical. He reached across the glass and placed the cards in front of Lila once he was finished. When she scooped them up and attempted to lower them out of sight though, Mr. Agreste spoke up.  
  
“I’d prefer it if I had an eye on my cards at all times, Miss Rossi,” he said in his non-negotiable way. “They are very precious to me.”  
  
Lila bit her tongue inside her mouth. This wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t the end of the world. Tarot cards were incredibly open to interpretation. All she had to do was apply them to Mr. Agreste’s situation, a situation he didn’t know she was aware of, and she would be golden. So with an easy smile, Lila went about setting up her spread. It took on the form of a sideways pyramid using six cards. Mr. Agreste looked out at it over the rim of his glasses.  
  
“What spread is this?” he wondered.  
  
“This is a specialty of mine,” Lila lied. “The Directional Guidance Spread! Clearly you need guidance at this time. Whatever you’re doing isn’t working, so it’s time to head in a new direction. This spread will show you the way.”  
  
“I see. Proceed.”  
  
“The card in Position 1 will tell you what you are doing right.”  
  
In an ideal world, this card would be the Three of Pentacles so Lila could tell Mr. Agreste that asking her for help was the best thing he could’ve possibly done. Crossing her fingers out of sight, she flipped the card over and hoped for the best. It depicted a man (at least, she thought it was a man) sitting beneath a palm tree, being offered a chalice. He ignored it along with the three other chalices at his feet. Lila frowned. It was the Four of Cups, and it stood for being self-absorbed, feeling apathetic, and being introspective. How was she supposed to work with that?  
  
“Well?” wondered Mr. Agreste when Lila didn’t speak right away.  
  
The girl knotted her brow harder. The Four of Cups wasn’t usually a card that represented what people were doing right. Usually, it was what they were doing wrong. Yet, somehow, this had to represent what Mr. Agreste was doing correctly when he read his own cards.  
  
Suddenly, some words of wisdom came to Lila in her moment of need.  
  
_Another thing to be aware of when preforming a reading is focus, darling. The focus of whomever is being read needs to be on themselves and no one else, or else the reading could get muddled! This is all the more difficult if you’re giving yourself a reading. **You have to make sure your question centers on** **you** , rather than on someone else who you think is the source of your issue._  
  
Maybe all that stuff Madame Magda has said about mindset wasn’t mumbo-jumbo after all.  
  
“You test my patience, Miss Rossi—” started Mr. Agreste, but Lila cut him off.  
  
“The Four of Cups is all about the self,” she said. “Detaching yourself from others, from the world, and focusing on you. That’s what you’re doing right in your situation, Mr. Agreste. Your focus is right where it needs to be.”  
  
This seemed to catch the man off-guard. “…on myself?”  
  
“Exactly! And that’s clear even in this reading. The question you asked is, ‘What am _I_ doing wrong?’”  
  
Mr. Agreste stroked his chin. “I see…but this insight helps me very little.”  
  
“Maybe the second card will help? The reason I chose this spread is because your question is actually Position 2.”  
  
“What am I doing wrong?”  
  
Lila bobbed her head.  
  
“Then let’s see it,” he said.  
  
Lila turned over the next card in line. Like the Four of Cups before it, it puzzled her. Instead of showing a negative card in a positive position though, it was a positive card in a negative position.  
  
The Nine of Pentacles showed a rich woman, a falconer, walking through a lush garden. Even Mr. Agreste’s unsightly deck showcased this. It represented self-discipline, self-reliance, and refinement—all good things in Lila’s book. However, that didn’t mean she couldn’t use it to her advantage. It was no Three of Pentacles in Position 1, but it would do. Lila cleared her throat.  
  
“The Nine of Pentacles is a lovely card, don’t you think?” she asked. Mr. Agreste said nothing, so she continued. “Like the Four of Cups, it is another card all about the self, but much more practical. It is a Pentacle, after all.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“You don’t know? Each of the suits has specific negative and positive qualities associated with it. Pentacles are practical, while Cups are spiritual. They are considered opposites, so a Cup and a Pentacle as your first two cards makes sense.” Lila had no idea if that was true or not, but it sounded right. She nodded as if to double-down on what she had just said. “One thing the Nine of Pentacles represents is relying on yourself. So while focusing on yourself is a good thing, relying on yourself isn’t. You might feel like your way is best, but that isn’t always the case. When you’re biased, you’re unable to remain impartial.” Remaining neutral had been another one of Madame Magda’s mindset lessons.  
  
Mr. Agreste clenched his teeth. Perhaps Lila had gone a step too far, but while she often told people what they wanted to hear, it was only so she could get what she wanted. In this case, she needed to manipulate Mr. Agreste into thinking she was a good tarot reader. It couldn’t be all sunshine and puppies or he would get suspicious.  
  
“Then what am I to do?” he demanded.  
  
Lila offered weak laughter, because Mr. Agreste did honestly scare her sometimes. He had a lot of power…and a lot of rage. “Funny you should ask that! The next card in the spread offers you advice.”  
  
“I’d be interested to hear it.”  
  
“All right, then.” Lila flipped the third card, mind madly racing to make it work for her. She only spoke to buy herself a bit of time. “Oh, I see we have the first of our major arcana!”  
  
It was a holy man on a throne, the Hierophant. It was a card Lila had studied long and hard because she honestly had no idea what a hierophant was before she started studying tarot. Apparently, it was someone who interpreted secret knowledge. Lila smiled at this thought. Like the Nine of Pentacles, it would help her support the Three of Pentacles that wasn’t there. The Hierophant even reinforced the Three of Pentacles.  
  
“The Hierophant offers some great advice,” she told Mr. Agreste. “He emphasizes a belief system. You need to know where to put your faith. We know it is currently in yourself, but the cards are telling you that this isn’t working. Another aspect of the Hierophant is its emphasis on groups and learning from experts or knowledgeable teachers. I think this cards is telling you that you should seek outside help from someone you trust.”  
  
Lila’s words seemed to give Mr. Agreste much to consider as he pursed his lips and squinted at the spread.  
  
“Why are there more cards?” he wondered. “It seems a three card spread would have sufficed.”  
  
“Oh, no, no, no, Mr. Agreste! I like the Directional Guidance Spread because it gives a nice scope of the situation.” She actually just wanted to further hammer home that he needed her. “Position 4 is a warning of what will happen if you don’t follow the advice of The Hierophant. Don’t you want to know what it is?”  
  
“Let me guess…The Five of Wands?”  
  
Lila moved to the second row, having already turned over the three cards in the first. When she flipped the card, it was a Wand, but double the amount Mr. Agreste had predicted. In it, a man struggled to carry a bundle of towering sticks. Lila's eyes lit up when she saw it. This was the very card she had picked out for Position 4! How lucky that it was exactly where she was hoping it would be.  
  
“Close!” cheered Lila. “The Ten of Wands and the Five of Wands are reinforcing cards, as they both represent struggles, hassles, and resistance, but the Ten of Wands is more of an…internal struggle, which fits the theme of your reading. It’s going to be a tough road ahead if you continue to ignore the Hierophant. Look at the man on the card! He can’t even see where he’s going. You don’t want to continue to blindly make your way along, do you, Mr. Agreste?”  
  
The man looked as if he had swallowed a lemon. “No.”  
  
“I assure you, Mr. Agreste, things don’t have to be that way. Let’s see what would happen if you did listen to The Hierophant.”  
  
The next card Lila revealed was a man with a hoe, taking a break to admire a bush covered in gold coins. She would’ve chosen the Six of Wands herself—everyone liked to hear they would be successful—but maybe the Seven of Pentacles was a better fit after all. It was more conservative than the Six of Wands, but still painted a pleasing picture.  
  
“It makes sense that a card suggesting a change of direction would be found in this position in this spread,” said Lila. “This is the Seven of Pentacles. It means stuff like evaluating a situation or seeing results. If you take a moment to listen to the wisdom of the Hierophant, than surely you will find yourself on the road to success. The Seven of Pentacles all but affirms it!”  
  
“Two diverging paths…” observed Mr. Agreste, nodding towards the spread.  
  
Lila hadn’t noticed that, but was quick to nod in agreement. The Ten of Wands and Seven of Pentacles seemed to split off the three cards that worked to answer Mr. Agreste’s orginal question.  
  
“What of the last card?” the man wondered.  
  
Lila reached for the card that made up the point of the sideways pyramid and flipped it, revealing none other than the Three of Pentacles. Lila gasped. She had built the whole spread on this card only for everything to lead up to it. What were the chances? Maybe she needed to gamble more often.  
  
“What is it?” wondered Mr. Agreste.  
  
“The card in Position 6 tell me what you’re going to learn from this spread and I am happy to say you do, in fact, listen to The Hierophant.”  
  
“How do you know?”  
  
“Because this is the Three of Pentacles, a reinforcing card to The Hierophant. That means it specifically stands for teaming up with someone. And it’s a Pentacle too, which we talked about. This is a practical application to fix whatever it is that you’re doing wrong. Whatever you are trying to accomplish, you can’t do it on your own, no matter how much you want to. It’s okay to turn to others who know what they’re doing. They will help you make sense of everything. And something tells me you already know who that someone is!”  
  
“Indeed.” Mr. Agreste fell silent for a moment, clearly ruminating on Lila’s speech. She thought it was pretty good, if she said so herself. He abruptly began to gather up the cards though, so Lila wasn’t quite sure if he had convinced him or not. “Thank you for your time, Miss Rossi. This experience has been very…enlightening.”  
  
Lila smiled. Somehow, a randomized deck seemed to have worked even better than what she had come up with herself. If her performance didn’t net her more time with Adrien, she didn’t know what would.  
  
She watched Mr. Agreste pocket his deck and stroll away. “Come along, Miss Rossi. Bring your things.”  
  
Lila quickly complied, but the man was already out the door of his atelier by the time she caught up to him. He was speaking to Nathalie in the foyer. She nodded.  
  
“Yes, sir,” was all Lila caught as she approached them. Turning heel, the woman marched up the stairs.  
  
Lila opened her mouth to ask Mr. Agreste what was going on, but he started walking again.  
  
“This way, Miss Rossi,” he told her as he led her into the dining room.  
  
Despite passing it a few times, Lila had never been in the Agreste’s dining room before. She was shocked by the length of the table. It seemed to stretch on for ages. Against the far left wall was a black marble fireplace large enough to stand in, with enough seating for four. Count on the Agrestes to have a living room in their dining room.  
  
“Have a seat,” commanded Mr. Agreste.  
  
Lila did as she was told, pulling the chair out at the end of the table. She looked down it, feeling like a queen presiding over an invisible court. She imagined filling the seats with people she lied about knowing—Prince Ali, Jagged Stone, Steven Basielberg, Chuch Boroughchuck, Ladybug (well, maybe not Ladybug). With Adrien by her side and Mr. Agreste’s connections, it was only a matter of time before her wish became a reality.  
  
And speaking of Adrien…  
  
“Nathalie said you wanted to see me, Father?” came Adrien’s voice as he entered the room. He was all smiles and excitement until his eyes fell on Lila. He quickly went cold.  
  
“Yes,” said Mr. Agreste. He gestured to Lila. “I wanted to inform you that you will be dining with Miss Rossi tonight.”  
  
“Are you serious!?” demanded Adrien.  
  
At the same time, Lila squeaked with excitement. “Really? Truly?” She knew she had given a pretty good reading, but a private dinner with Adrien was more than she could’ve ever hoped for.  
  
Mr. Agreste gave his son a reproachful look. “Of course I’m serious.”  
  
Seeing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with his father, Adrien turned to Lila. “But I thought you said on Twitter that you were jetting off to that Jagged Stone concert in Budapest tonight.”  
  
“I was, but someone called in a bomb threat to the airport. Jagged called me himself to tell me not to come—he’d rather not risk his number one fan.”  
  
“Then this works out,” said Mr. Agreste. He began to walk away, arms folded behind his back, but he stopped when he was parallel to his son and turned his head towards him. “Adrien, you would do well to associate with helpful people like Lila. You’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the near future.”  
  
There was a bit of fight in Adrien’s eyes, but the boy struggled to keep his emotions in check. His fear and respect of his father always won out. Always.  
  
Adrien hung his head. “Yes, Father.”  
  
“And Miss Rossi?” said Mr. Agreste.  
  
Lila hadn’t been expecting to be addressed again and she flinched. “What! Er…yes?”  
  
“I expect another private meeting with you in the near future as well. Understood?”  
  
Lila couldn’t help it. Her shark-tooth smile just sort of slipped out sometimes. Mr. Agreste had his back to her though, and Adrien was finally cottoning on to her true nature, so it didn’t matter. Part of her understood that it was a dangerous game she was playing, but she had proved to herself that she could make up a good enough tarot reading on the fly to appease Mr. Agreste. And if one good reading led to dinner with Adrien, she could only imagine what kind of rewards were in store for her if she continued to perform well. It seemed the risk was worth it.  
  
“It would be my pleasure,” she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Directional Guidance Spread by Amy Lamash
> 
> Found on Pinterest. Originally from tarottips.info


	3. The Empress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I don't have much to do other than sanitize food from the grocery store and write fanfic these days, so here is another chapter! It's nice to have an online community, however small, to not feel so alone. As an extrovert, this Shelter in Place has been difficult for me, but I make do!
> 
> This chapter I finally don't have to write as that rat Lila. Yay! Also, for all my Adrigami fans out there, this one is for you. You know? I get it. This was a cute chapter to write and it came pretty easy. Bit of a black sheep though—no tarot spread! But still some interesting tarot knowledge ^_^
> 
> The shoutout this chapter goes to...javegar453. Who isn't reading this hoping that Lila gets what she deserves in the end? Don't worry, liars never prosper, but they do sometimes get quite far in life...Anyway! Hope you enjoy!

“Thanks for doing this with me, Kagami,” said Adrien. He still felt a little guilty for skipping fencing practice, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, it was nice to walk beneath the colonnades parallel to the Tuileries, Kagami’s hand occasionally brushing against his, as a slight breeze ruffled his hair.  
  
“I am happy to do so,” said the girl, a slight smile gracing her face. “I needed a break. Besides, any friend of yours is a friend of mine. They are easier to make that way.”  
  
Adrien laughed. He enjoyed his time with Kagami. Not only did she never make him feel like he had to live up to some impossible standard, but she knew what it was like to live under that pressure too. As much as he loved his friends, they would never be able to understand him like Kagami did. He felt the same way about Ladybug, but she had her heart set on someone else.  
  
As they approached _Voyance_ , Adrien suddenly grew a little nervous. He’d been a little vague up until this point, so he got in front of Kagami and began walking backwards. “Ah, there’s probably something you should know about my friend…”  
  
The door creaked open and Madame Magda lumbered out with her sandwich sign, ready to set up shop for the day. Today she was sporting a flowing robe printed with mushrooms. She had kept the earthy theme of the outfit by pairing it with a dark brown headscarf, the end tucked under.  
  
The woman noticed them almost right away. “Mr. Agreste!” she boomed, wiping chalk dust off her hands. “What a lovely surprise!”  
  
Kagami drew back, casting Adrien a furtive glance. He gave her a sheepish grin before going right up to Madame Magda for a hug. She enveloped him for a brief moment, then released to pat him on the cheek.  
  
“It’s been a while,” she said. “Please, come in, come in!” She began to herd them towards the door, nodding towards Kagami “And who is your companion?”  
  
“This is my…” Adrien still didn’t know how to verbalize it yet. Girlfriend? He guessed it was true, but he still hadn’t said the word aloud. Shouldn’t he talk to Kagami about it first?  
  
“Kagami Tsurugi,” said the girl, giving Madame Magda an incline of the head.  
  
As they crossed over the threshold into the shop, Adrien took note of the old, weathered door with its concentric designs. It had been repaired since Hawk Moth’s break-in, the damage left by him now filled with gold. It sparkled in the morning light.  
  
“Kintsugi,” explained Kagami appreciatively when she noticed Adrien looking at it. She ran her hand over the gold spot that Adrien assumed had once been a gouge left by Hawk Moth’s sword cane.  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“It is the Japanese art of repairing something that is broken with gold. The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it.”  
  
“That’s right!” said Madame Magda. “I could never part with that old door. We’ve been through so much together.”  
  
“It’s very well done,” acknowledged Kagami. “I take it you’re a fan of Japanese culture?”  
  
“I’m a fan of many cultures, darling.” The woman reached in and turned the sign in the window back to ‘closed.’ “But I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Japan, yes.”  
  
Kagami switched to Japanese, saying something that probably amounted to, Do you speak the language? Madame Magda grinned and answered in kind, but waved her hand to show she was only so-so. It was times like these when Adrien wished his father had chosen Japanese over Mandarin as his second language of choice. It seemed a lot of people currently in his life spoke it.  
  
“I’m better at reading it,” Madame Magda admitted, switching back to French. “Like that kanji on your ring. That means ‘woman,’ ‘daughter,’ or ‘female,’ depending on context.”  
  
Kagami ran her thumb over the ring’s surface. “It is my family crest.”  
  
“Then you must come from a long line of strong women! I also come from a line of strong women.”  
  
“I believe it.”  
  
Madame Magda shook the room with her laughter, startling Kagami, but once she grew used to the volume, she relaxed and gave her tiny smile again.  
  
“You, Miss Tsurugi, are a delight!” gushed Madame Magda. “Why don’t I get us some water and we can chat? Seems to me Mr. Agreste has something on his mind.”  
  
The two teens thanked her and the woman vanished into the back.  
  
“Your friend is most impressive,” observed Kagami, looking around the shop. “It’s a shame she covers herself in these…trappings.” She poked at some crystal wind chimes. They tinkled like broken glass.  
  
Adrien found himself thrown for a loop. “Hey!” he complained. “I happen to like this shop.”  
  
“It’s nothing but useless baubles and strange smells.”  
  
“So?”  
  
“So, my mother would greatly disapprove of me being in a place like this.” She paused here, pushing her smile further into almost dangerous territory as she grabbed a scarf with a dragon printed on it and put it around her neck. “I love it.”  
  
Giggling, the two began to go around the shop, putting on jewelry and draping their shoulders with shawls. They found a pair of atomizers filled with rosewater and were soon chasing each other around the displays trying to spray each other. Madame Magda returned in the middle of their merry war though and they both froze.  
  
“Oh, don’t stop on my account, darlings,” she told them as she put the bottled waters down on the counter. “It seems like you two are enjoying yourselves.”  
  
Though it was of no fault of Madame Magda, the moment had passed and Adrien felt a heaviness return to his shoulders. He could not forget why he had come. He pulled off a number of ombré shawls and hung them back up before getting to work on removing his rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Kagami tilted her head, disappointed by his choice, and remained resolutely decked out in _Voyance_ ’s finest.  
  
“I need your help, Madame Magda,” Adrien explained. “My father is being taken advantage of by a false tarot reader who is only telling him what he wants to hear and I don’t know what to do.”  
  
He thought the first time was just a fluke, but Lila had given his father several more readings since then. They had all gone well, judging by the amount of time Adrien was subjected to Lila’s presence. They did homework together, ate dinner together, attended photo shoots together. He was even forced to teach her piano, which she just used as an excuse to get uncomfortably close to him. His father telling him that Lila would be his date for an upcoming industry event was the last straw. Something had to be done, or he might just be forced into a relationship with the girl.  
  
Madame Magda’s face folded in on itself, almost like origami, as her joy was transformed into sorrow.  
  
“That is truly unfortunate,” she mused, lowering herself down on her stool behind the counter. “Lies are most dangerous because they masquerade as the truth. Whenever the two are compared though, it becomes clear which one is the pale imitation.”  
  
“Uh…right.”  
  
“She’s giving you the answer, Adrien,” explained Kagami, coming up alongside him. She looked absolutely ridiculous. It was adorable. “If your father was given a reading by a real tarot reader, then he would realize that Lila is nothing but a liar.”  
  
“Oh!” Adrien turned back eagerly to Madame Magda. “Will you give my father a reading?”  
  
“Unfortunately, I don’t give readings anymore,” she reminded him, not unkindly. “But I am giving lessons! Perhaps I can teach you to give readings yourself, Mr. Agreste.”  
  
“That’s a good idea, Madame Magda, but I don’t really have the time,” said Adrien with a sigh, shoulders drooping. He found a hesitant hand on his back as Kagami tried her best to comfort him. She suddenly grabbed him roughly though and turned him to face her, her eyes alight with an idea.  
  
“Wait. What if we get a friend to do it?” she asked him.  
  
“Who…?” wondered Adrien, only to realize the answer at the same time Kagami gave it to him.  
  
“Marinette!” they chorused together.  
  
“Kagami, that’s a great idea!” said Adrien. “I’ll talk to her the next time I see her. I’m sure she’d be willing to help.” He turned to the former tarot reader. “Does that work for you, Madame Magda? I’d be more than happy to pay for her lessons.”  
  
“Consider them on the house,” she said. “You’ve brought my little shop a lot of business!”  
  
Adrien turned to look at the curtain drawn over Madame Magda’s reading nook. He had noticed the little sign folded over the rope when he first came in and it made his heart sink a little. He still had trouble scrubbing the memory of seeing the police tape around Voyance, the door hanging from its hinges, the table and its cloth bisected on the floor.  
  
“I brought it a lot of trouble too,” he said.  
  
“Nonsense, Mr. Agreste!” Madame Magda insisted. “I told you the last time you were here—Hawk Moth’s theft was not your fault.”  
  
“Hawk Moth stole from you?” asked Kagami with interest. She reached for her water and unscrewed the lid, taking a dainty sip. Adrien followed suit.  
  
“Indeed!” said Madame Magda. “He broke in and stole my favorite deck of tarot cards! I really haven’t had the heart to give a reading since. But every storm cloud has a silver lining. I don’t think my old friend Mr. Chan would’ve stopped by if he hadn’t seen that my shop had become a crime scene. How is he, by the way? I haven’t seen him in a while.”  
  
“Mr. Chan?” wondered Kagami.  
  
“My substitute Mandarin tutor,” Adrien explained. He turned back to Madame Magda only to hesitate. What could he really say? “You didn’t hear? He was in an accident.”  
  
The woman clutched her heart, eyes blown wide. “Goodness! Is he okay?”  
  
“He lost his memory.”  
  
“Oh. Oh, how terrible!”  
  
“It’s okay. I heard he went to England and some woman named Marianne is going to be taking care of him.”  
  
This went a long way in easing Madame Magda’s worry. “Ah! See? Silver lining. I always told Mr. Chan that he and Marianne were meant to be together.”  
  
“How did you know?” asked Kagami. Adrien swore she glanced at him, but when he looked, her intense gaze was focused only on Madame Magda. “How did you know that they were meant to be together?”  
  
“I suppose there were many signs, and I always liked how their cards matched up.”  
  
“Cards.”  
  
“That’s right.” Madame Magda simpered as she swept her hand down below the counter. When it came back up, she was holding a familiar shiny deck. “Cards!” she affirmed. “For example, Adrien here would be…” She began to search the deck.  
  
“But you—” Adrien froze halfway through reminding Madame Magda that she had already given him a card, only to remember at the last second that he had been Chat Noir at the time. “…don’t have to do that,” he finished weakly.  
  
“Nonsense, darling! You can even keep the card as soon as I—Ah…here we go!”  
  
She pulled a card and handed it to Adrien. It depicted a svelte woman in a gold dress, sitting on a white throne. With hair like fire, she wielded a long branch in one hand and a magical wand in the other. Beneath her feet sat a cat. Adrien nearly crumpled the card in his fist when he read the name.  
  
It was _him_.  
  
Not _him_ him. Not Adrien. Adrien knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was the Knight of Wands. This card represented the boy who Ladybug loved.  
  
Kagami leaned over to have a look. “The Queen of Wands?” she asked.  
  
“It is the card of someone who is popular, whom others look up to for being good-looking,” explained Madame Magda. “They are usually very gracious individuals, with sunny dispositions that are open and sincere. They lead very busy lives.”  
  
“That indeed sounds like Adrien,” Kagami agreed.  
  
When put that way, the Queen of Wands did sound a bit like him, or at least the public side of him. Wouldn’t it be funny if the boy Ladybug was in love with were him? But Adrien brushed that thought away. Ladybug wasn’t some shallow fan girl. The fact of the matter was Madame Madga was doing the best with the information she had. She had no idea he was Chat Noir, so how would she know he was actually the Knight of Wands? Still…maybe he should say something? Otherwise, Madame Magda would be matching the wrong card to Kagami’s. When he opened his mouth though, Kagami was already speaking.  
  
“What of my card?” she asked.  
  
There was a twinkle in Madame Magda’s eye. She was ready before Kagami even asked and whipped it out with a flourish.  
  
“The Queen of Swords, naturally.”  
  
This was literally the most Adrien had ever seen Kagami smile. He couldn’t help but smile too. He didn’t know anything about the Queen of Swords, but considering Kagami was a fencer, and wielded an actual sword as Riposte, Oni-Chan, and Ryuko, it made complete sense.  
  
Looking at the card, it showed a woman in white on a golden seat, high up in the clouds. She wielded a golden two-handed broadsword with one hand. Kagami cradled it for a moment before abruptly looking up.  
  
“What does it mean?” she wondered.  
  
“You are honest and astute. You are able to size up situations quickly and accurately, and are upfront with everyone you meet. You don’t bother with pretense—you get straight to the point. The world has hardened you a bit, but you have learned from your experiences and have developed a quick wit.”  
  
“All that is accurate, except for the last bit. I wouldn’t consider myself witty.”  
  
“On the contrary, darling! Your dry humor is rather refreshing.”  
  
“Madame Magda is right!” said Adrien. “You have a great sense of humor! Remember when you were joking around with Marinette at Mr. and Mrs. Bourgeois’s wedding anniversary?”  
  
The girl gave him a look of disbelief.  
  
“You’re just forced to hide that part of yourself from your mom since she’s so strict, just like I have to hide my imperfections from my father.”  
  
“You really think I’m funny…?”  
  
“Absolutely!”  
  
The girl’s cheeks tinged pink and Adrien felt a warm glow in his heart.  
  
Madame Magda’s laughter rumbled through the moment. “A queen/queen pairing if I ever saw one!”  
  
“What…what do you mean?” Adrien wondered, growing worried. They were actually a queen/knight pairing, but how would he ever begin to explain that?  
  
“The fact that both of you are the same member of the court means you are equals, and have a lot in common.”  
  
“I always thought so,” agreed Kagami.  
  
_Does that mean we aren’t equals?_ Adrien wondered. Ladybug was a king, so what did that mean? He needed answers, but Madame Magda continued none-the-wiser.  
  
“Being both queens though, you are both concerned about your internal states,” she was saying. “There is a lot of strife within you two—it sounds like you are both trying to please your parents, becoming who they want rather than who you want. This is distressing because queens are concerned with feelings, relationships, and self-expression. Thankfully, you found each other, which can only help you both not feel so alone.”  
  
“But Adrien is a Wand and I am a Sword,” Kagami pointed out. “What does that mean?”  
  
“Very astute, Miss Tsurugi! Each suit in tarot opposes the other three. If Mr. Agreste is fire, you are air.”  
  
“We’re opposites?”  
  
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, darling! Opposing forces have the opportunity to balance each other out. Mr. Agreste is passionate, engaging, charismatic, and artistic. You are reserved, detached, authoritative, and analytical. Yes, you and Mr. Agreste are different—but remember!—it is up to you how you handle those differences. You can both learn a lot from each other.”  
  
“Interesting. I honestly don’t believe in any of this tarot business, but what you are saying does have merit. I appreciate your wisdom.”  
  
“Spoken like a true Queen of Swords.”  
  
Adrien desperately wanted to know about other pairings, but he restrained himself. If he asked, Kagami might get the wrong idea and think he was talking about a different girl rather than himself, and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Instead, they picked out Marinette’s deck. They decided on the Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck. It was a faithful reproduction of the original Rider-Waite deck published in 1910 and used the original muted colors, unlike the saturated colors of a modern Rider-Waite deck. They reasoned that Marinette would like it because it was authentic, which could only help in their battle against Lila.

* * *

  
At school first thing, before Lila had a chance to roll in late with some excuse, Adrien went to pay Marinette a visit at her desk. She was face down on her books.  
  
“…Is Marinette okay?” Adrien asked Alya.  
  
Marinette jerked upright at the sound of her name. “Gah! That’ll be 15.75 bon-bons. Here's your dozen euros.”  
  
“Girl has been taking on extra responsibility at her parents’ bakery and it shows,” said Alya.  
  
“Er, uh…” Marinette seemed disorientated as she looked around, eyes falling on Adrien before withering. “Hi, Adrien.”  
  
Adrien drew back. Mainette looked simply exhausted. There were dark circles underneath her eyes and one of her pigtails was only half done. He realized that there was already so much on Marinette’s plate—helping her parents at the bakery, being class president, her design work, her homework, not to mention all the things she did for others—Adrien wasn’t sure if he could bring himself to heap on yet another responsibility.  
  
“I need help with something, but it’s not that important,” he said, trying to turn away, but her earnest voice brought him back.  
  
“No, no! I would love to help! What is it?”  
  
“It’s kind of…private. Will you come with me to the hall?”  
  
Alya, who was pretending like she wasn’t paying attention, smirked. Marinette seemed concerned though and got up. She followed him out of the classroom.  
  
“It’s Lila,” Adrien explained once they were in a quiet spot. Class was about to start soon and almost everyone was in their classrooms. “She’s been giving my father fake tarot readings.”  
  
“That’s horrible!” cried Marinette, but her fear morphed into confusion. “But…I don’t know how I can be of any help.”  
  
“Kagami came up with a plan. What if you learn how to do tarot so you can combat Lila? We trust no one else.”  
  
“Oh…Adrien. That’s such an honor, and I’m glad you and Kagami think of me so highly, but…”  
  
“I know a good teacher,” said Adrien, ignoring Marinette’s hesitance as he pulled out Madame Magda’s business card. He had grabbed it on his way out of the shop while she told him to tell his bodyguard that she said hello. He pushed the card into Marinette’s hands along with the deck. “We even got you a set of cards, see?”  
  
Marinette’s eyes widened and she colored a little as she looked at the business card. “You know Madame Magda?”  
  
Adrien found himself a little surprised. “You know her too? She didn’t say anything.”  
  
“Alya dragged me to her shop once for a…um, a reading. How do you know her?”  
  
Adrien opened his mouth only to realize he couldn’t tell Marinette the truth. Telling her that Ladybug took him there wasn’t going to make any sense unless he also told her he was Chat Noir, which he had no intentions of doing. Instead, he scratched the side of his head and offered Marinette a sheepish grin.  
  
“I actually heard about her from Alya too and thought I’d check her out. She’s very good.”  
  
Marinette grew redder still. “You know, I’ve been meaning to pay her another visit,” she said loudly, as if she had suddenly lost the ability to speak at a normal volume. Adrien shook his head and laughed a little. His friend was so silly.  
  
“She doesn’t do readings anymore, but I’m sure she’d love to see you again,” he told her.  
  
This seemed to snap Marinette out of whatever funk she had randomly fallen in to. “How come?”  
  
“I guess Hawk Moth stole her deck? I was driving past her shop the day after it happened and there was police tape everywhere, so I went to go check on her. She was fine, but she told me she wasn’t going to give readings anymore.”  
  
“I can understand that. She was probably pretty shaken up about the whole thing.”  
  
“Really? She seemed fine to me. But now that you mention it…that would make a lot of sense.”  
  
“Still, that’s too bad.”  
  
“What’s too bad?” cut in a voice.  
  
Adrien and Marinette cringed as they turned to find Lila walking up to them. Her eyes were narrowed as she considered them with suspicion. While Adrien found his mouth going dry though, Marinette babbled a response.  
  
“T-That Adrien can’t attend my pet mouseatoo’s first birthday.”  
  
“Uh-huh…” said Lila, clearly not buying it. She sidestepped Marinette and sidled up against Adrien. Maybe if he was a little less used to people being in his personal space, he would’ve taken a step back, but he stood his ground instead. “Adrien, will you walk me to class?”  
  
Adrien looked from Lila to the door. It was ten feet away.  
  
“You go on ahead,” he told her kindly. “I’ll catch up.”  
  
Lila didn’t move.  
  
“You don’t want to be late, do you?” Adrien wondered.  
  
“But what about you two? I would absolutely hate it if you were tardy because of me. Why don’t we all go together?”  
  
It was no use. Lila always got her way.  
  
With a sigh, Adrien headed towards the door. Lila latched on to his arm and Marinette filed in behind them, muttering darkly. Later though, she surreptitiously passed him a note when Lila was otherwise occupied.  
  
_I’ll do it starting tomorrow after school,_ it said. _You and Kagami can count on me!_


	4. The Emperor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of time to write right now...but none of the motivation or energy! Isn't that how it always is??? Ugh.
> 
> Anyway, welcome to the chapter that is 100% awful people being awful, but at least to each other. Enjoy!
> 
> This chapter's shout out goes to...Bumblebee_exe! I like to throw a little love and appreciation to those who give me kudos and bookmarks as well. No comment required to receive a shout out! I'm glad you are reading and enjoy my work ^_^

Lila pretty much had Mr. Agreste’s readings down to a science by this point. He would put forth a vague question and, if she didn’t already have a spread, she would make her excuses—a phone call, a restroom break, a claim of a bloody nose—so she could sneak away and look up an appropriate one. She was constantly on the hunt for supplemental knowledge to aid her pretense as a mystic who seemed to know things she should have no way of knowing too. She gathered information by questioning everyone in the Agreste household and by eavesdropping, not to mention reading every tabloid and fashion magazine she could get her hands on that mentioned Gabriel Agreste. Everything seemed to be going well based off the amount of time she was getting to spend with Adrien, but Lila could sense Mr. Agreste’s mounting impatience. Not only did he not like to be kept waiting, but it seemed he was waiting to ask her what he really wanted. So maybe it shouldn’t have come as such a shock to Lila when everything finally came to a head.

Following Nathalie into Mr. Agreste’s atelier, Lila knew something was off the moment she stepped into the room. Instead of working, Mr. Agreste was gazing at the painting of his wife that was hung on the back wall. It was a portrait in the style of The Woman in Gold, which meant that it was equal parts elegant and insane.

“Miss Rossi to see you, sir,” said Nathalie to Mr. Agreste’s back.

“Leave us.”

Nathalie drew back, clearly shocked and confused by Mr. Agreste’s abrupt command, but eventually slinked out of the room. Lila could hardly contain her smirk. She then waited for Mr. Agreste to speak, or at the very least gesture for her to step down into the sunken area in the middle of the room. The seconds ticked away into a minute though and the man didn’t move a muscle.

“Uh…Mr. Agreste?” Lila ventured.

“What do I do next?”

It seemed like he was asking the portrait of his wife.

“Er…what was that?” asked Lila.

“I said…” Mr. Agreste turned to face her. His glare was powerful. “What do I do next?”

“Oh! That’s your question for today. I have the perfect spread, of course. Just let me get set up…”

Lila did not have the perfect spread. She trundled down the steps, slipping her phone out of her pocket to text Rose instead. She told the girl she was going on a date with an ambassador’s son who was an absolute bore, and to call with a fake emergency. As soon as Lila put her bag down, her phone began to ring. She looked at the screen and faked surprise before chancing a glance at Mr. Agreste. He hadn’t moved from his spot, but now his eyebrows were knotted as he considered Lila with distain.

“I’m so sorry!” Lila insisted. “All my friends know better than to call me during these times. It must be an emergency! Please, excuse me.”

She rushed back up the steps and almost made it to the door before Mr. Agreste spoke.

“If you leave this room, you won’t be welcomed back.”

The blood in Lila’s veins ran cold and she paused. Quashing her panic, she feigned innocence as she turned back around. “What…what do you mean?”

“Your friend can wait. Unless this is a ruse to look up a spread…?”

“Of course not!” lied Lila. “I told you I had the perfect one in mind.”

The man put his hands behind his back and marched down into the sunken area. “Then show me.”

Though Lila loathed admitting it, she didn’t have much of a choice. She let Rose go to voicemail and returned to her usual spot across from Mr. Agreste. It looked like she was going to have to make up the spread on the spot. It was a daunting challenge, but nothing she couldn’t handle. At least, that was the lie she told herself. When you lied as much as she did, confidence was key.

The moment Lila hit her mark, Mr. Agreste took his cards out of the inside pocket of his jacket, slipped them out of their package, and began to shuffle. There was a certain staccato rhythm to it. One-two, one-two, one-two. It seemed the man wanted to get through the formalities as quickly as possible.

“Has something happened…?” Lila wondered.

Mr. Agreste ignored her as he slammed the deck down. “Now. Show me this perfect spread of yours.”

Lila couldn’t help but gulp, but she gamely picked up the cards and began to set up the spread. She put them down slowly in a line in order to give herself time to think.

“This is the…What Do I Do Next? Spread,” she explained. She was putting down too many cards and she knew it, but it looked impressive. In fact, she was feeling a little inspired by the name she had come up with on the spot and the spread began to take shape. “See how it’s shaped like an arrow? It offers direction.”

The nine-card arrow in question was pointing towards her.

Mr. Agreste adjusted his glasses. He seemed to have softened some, much to Lila’s relief. “I see…”

Lila put a hand on the card at the start of the arrow. “This is Position 1.”

“And…?”

“…And?”

“What does it mean?”

“Oh! It means…”

Lila’s mind scrambled for an answer, but the only thing she could think of was the most basic of three-card spreads: past, present, and future. She didn’t know much about the past, but she had a pretty good idea about the present. And the future was whatever she said it was! Looked like she had Position 1 and 2 already taken care of.  
  
“It’s a snapshot,” said Lila with signature confidence. “Of what is happening now. We can’t know where to go until we understand where you currently are.”

Mr. Agreste turned these words over in his head before nodding. Lila flipped the card, revealing a young man with a hoe, taking a break to admire a bush growing gold coins.

“You’re familiar with the Seven of Pentacles, of course,” said Lila. “It came up in your first reading.”

“I recall,” said Mr. Agreste. “I believe you said it had to do with changing direction.”

“Exactly! What a perfect start for this spread.”

Lila had been hoping the first card would help inspire the way she was going to spin the reading. She recalled a line from the latest issue of _Style Queen_ discussing Mr. Agreste’s most recent clothing line. _The acclaim is no doubt another feather in the_ Gabriel _-brand cap, but the fashion world can’t help but ask: In what direction will Mr. Agreste head in next?_

 _Of course!_ Lila realized. _Mr. Agreste wants answers to that question as well!_ This spread was about his career.

“You want to try something new, something that’s never been done before,” Lila said. “But this doesn’t diminish your recent success.”

“Success?”

“Yes, of course! Don’t forget that the Seven of Pentacles also stands for reaping a reward.”

“There’s no reward. I’ve been toiling fruitlessly.”

Lila nearly rolled her eyes. Count on Mr. Agreste to hold himself to some impossibly high standard. The clothing line had some detractors, but they were all just jealous of Mr. Agreste’s success. Lila was all too familiar with those kinds of people, the Marinettes of the world.

“This card would not be here if you weren’t seeing results,” Lila insisted. “You must have something to show for all your hard work.”

The man paused here before his eyes widened. He muttered something under his breath. The…something something. Something tablet? Lila didn’t quite catch it.

“What was that?” she asked.

“You make a fair point,” agreed Mr. Agreste. “I did receive something for my efforts. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it has proven useful.”

“Think of it as a stepping stone to whatever comes next,” suggested Lila.

“And what comes next?”

Lila didn’t want to jump to the future just yet. There were still so many cards on the table. Maybe something vaguely future related though? That could work.

“Please be patient, Mr. Agreste. We’ll get there. Position 2 is about the future, but…how you feel about it.”

This was dicey territory, Lila knew. Mr. Agreste was a hard man to read. But she had two different routes she could take based on whatever card she flipped over that were both true. Either he felt frustrated by his lack of future direction, or he felt hopeful after his recent success. She hoped it was the latter though, since it would tie in nicely with the Seven of Pentacles.

It seemed luck was in Lila’s corner. She turned over the Ace of Wands, a hand wielding a big stick. Lila liked Aces. They were powerful and people gravitated towards them.

“The Ace of Wands…” she explained, pretending to be thoughtful. “Would it be wrong to say that your recent success has left you encouraged about the future? Maybe you haven’t recognized it yet, but a seed of bold enthusiasm has been planted in your life.”

Mr. Agreste leaned back. “I suppose I have solved a recent setback that has been dogging me for a while. With it fixed, there is a lot more future opportunity.”

“There! See? I sensed your frustration when I first entered the room, but you have a lot going for you! Good thing I was able to help remind you of that! The world is your oyster, Mr. Agreste. Your creative power will carry you through this uncertain future.”

“That’s all well and good, but that still does not answer my original question. What do I do next?”

There was that impatience again. There was no pleasing Mr. Agreste. He was the type of man who wasn’t happy unless he got exactly what he wanted. Lila could only distract him for so long. The third card seemed just as good as any to give into his wishes though. At the very least she had gotten two cards out of the way first.

“Maybe the next card can help?” she suggested. “It recommends what direction you need to go in.”

Lila smiled as she saw the spark of hunger in Mr. Agreste’s eyes as he motioned for her to continue. She had said the right words; now for the right card. Lila crossed her fingers, hoping for one that further reinforced the Seven of Pentacles and the Ace of Wands. Perhaps the Empress, highlighting Mr. Agreste’s abundance, or, better yet, Justice, since it focused on assessment and plotting a future course. Lila loved a good Major Arcana card to really drive a point home, so she was a little disappointed when that was not the case.

The card in question showed a family in a canoe. The mother and child huddled together while the father stood and used a pole to move them along. Six swords stood upright in the boat’s bow.

Lila panicked internally. This was not a happy card. However, there was one positive interpretation. The more Lila thought about it, the more excited she became. If she played her cards just right, she could benefit!

“Oh! The cards are advising that you take a vacation!” she said, clasping her hands together. “How fun!”

Mr. Agreste squinted down at the card. “Excuse me?”

“The Six of Swords indicates travel, which makes total sense. You’ve been working so hard! Even though good things have been happening and you look forward to the future, you don’t know how to get from Point A to Point B. Maybe unplug, kick back, and relax. Rejuvenate those creative juices! I can recommend some really amazing vacation spots since I’ve been all over the—”

“That’s not the only thing this card means,” cut in Mr. Agreste.

“Of course not! That would just be silly. But in your case, I really don’t think—“

“Miss Rossi!”

Lila fell silent. Mr. Agreste turned and looked out the window, as if disgusted by the sight of her.

“I thought a reader of your caliber would know better than to cherry-pick,” he said airily.

Lila pretended to take great offense. “Cherry-pick? Oh, Mr. Agreste, I would never! Although it is true that the Six of Swords can also stand for experiencing sadness and working through recovery…”

The moment Lila said those words she realized that maybe this spread wasn’t about Mr. Agreste’s career, but about his family. The man had lost his wife, after all. But that had happened ages ago and Lila thought he’d be over it by now. Maybe he wasn’t though. So she decided to test the waters.

“Does that sound like a direction you need to go in?” she asked.

Mr. Agreste flinched. “No,” he said, cold as ice. He was either right or in deep denial, but Lila didn’t care which one. All that mattered was that he had decided to accept her interpretation. “There is some merit to travel,” he admitted. “It might inspire me with new ideas.”

“Perfect! Then might I recommend Capri? It’s…” Lila kissed her fingers. “ _Molto bello_! I’ve been there a million times before. Maybe I could come along and serve as your tour guide!” Lila could almost imagine vacationing with the Agrestes. Adrien in a swimsuit, the finest in seafood, massages on the beach…

“I prefer the cold.”

“Oh, um, then the Alps!” tried Lila. “Did you know I almost competed in the Junior Olympics in skiing? If only I hadn’t broken my leg saving a man from an avalanche. I can’t ski competitively anymore, but I’d be more than happy to serve as your instructor in exchange for room and board!”

“If you must know, I was thinking Tibet.”

“Tibet…?” The very word conjured up images of desolate mountains and orange-robed monks deep in prayer. BOR-ING. “Now that I think about it, my schedule is much too full these days, but I hope you enjoy yourself.”

“Enough talk of vacation,” said Mr. Agreste, dismissing the conversation with a wave of his hand. “The cards have answered my question, yet there are still so many left on the table. Care to share why, Miss Rossi?”

“Well…” _Think, think, think!_ “Nothing is ever as easy as it seems. You’ve set yourself up for future success, but there are still…obstacles.” Lila put her hand on the fourth card and took note of its position. “See how this card is at the end of the arrow’s shaft? It’s the turning point of the entire spread.”

Mr. Agreste said nothing, so Lila flipped it over.

A disgruntled grunt issued forth from Mr. Agreste’s mouth and he stiffened at the sight of the Five of Swords. Lila was taken aback. Mr. Agreste never had a physical reaction to a card before. She tried to search the man’s face for answers, but he caught her and she quickly dropped her eyes to examine the card for herself. It was Minor Arcana—nothing special as far as she knew.

It depicted three men. Two had their backs to the smirking third, who was busy picking up swords. Lila didn’t know why, but she liked him. He had spunk, ideas, power the others clearly dismissed. Most people saw the Five of Swords as a negative, but Lila saw the potential. Acting in your own self-interest? No, it was self-care by putting yourself first. Experiencing conflict? No, it was defending yourself against attacks. Acting dishonorably? No, it was winning at all costs.

“There are people out there who want to see you fail, Mr. Agreste,” said Lila.

“I’m acutely aware. But is this not a card about the self?”

“True…but let me put it this way: do you think you are your own worst enemy, Mr. Agreste?”

“Not at all. But _some_ people seem to think so.”

“Exactly. You’re not the problem—it’s these people who don’t understand your vision. We talk about bad influences on Adrien, but what about bad influences on you? Don’t listen to them! You know yourself better than anyone else.”

“Do you take me for a fool? Nobody influences me! Every choice I make is mine and mine alone.”

 _I beg to differ_ , thought Lila, smiling. She had Mr. Agreste eating out of the palm of her hand and he didn’t even know it. In fact, she had a great idea for the next card that would truly cement her position as the only one Mr. Agreste trusted.

“Good! Then you should have no trouble overcoming your obstacles,” she told him sweetly. “But that doesn’t mean all advice given to you is bad. Position 5 paints a very clear picture of who you can trust.”

Like one of her Akuma namesakes, Lila could be a chameleon if she wanted to be. Call it a gift, but she could make anything about her. Including any tarot card.

She ended up flipping over a court card, much to her delight. It was a queen, sitting on a throne at the beach, examining some golden treasure. She wore a long hooded cloak patterned like the ocean.

“The Queen of Cups,” explained Lila. Which one was this one again? She had developed mnemonics for all the court cards to help her remember. The Queen of Cups was…Lila Talks In Popular Songs—Loving, Tenderhearted, Intuitive, Psychic, and Spiritual. She could definitely work with that. The trick wasn’t to claim the card was referring to her though. She had to lead Mr. Agreste to draw that conclusion for himself.

“Who is she?” Mr. Agreste wondered.

“The Queen of Cups represents someone who is compassionate and understanding. They are always helping others and some of the most trustworthy people you will ever meet. They can sense emotional currents and just, like, know things without having to be told.” She waited for Mr. Agreste to say something, but he seemed to be concentrating on his own thoughts. Maybe he needed a push. “I also hear they make excellent tarot card readers! Sound like anyone you know?”

“…Yes.”

Lila pretended to be surprised. “Oh, really? Who?”

“My wife.”

Lila grimaced. Not exactly the answer she had in mind. “A-are you sure?”

“There is no one else. Emilie was the sweetest, kindest, most gentle woman I’ve ever met. She had a kind word for everyone. She knew with one look how I was feeling. I never had to say a thing.”

“But she’s not…I mean…how can she even give you advice when she’s…um…”

“She gave me advice in the past. And I intend to follow it.”

It seemed there was nothing Lila could say or do that could convince Mr. Agreste otherwise. The phrase ‘Love makes you blind’ came to mind. He loved his wife so much that he couldn’t see beyond her. He saw her in everything, even when she wasn't there.

With a sigh, Lila decided to allow Mr. Agreste to think whatever he liked. After all, it was what he wanted to hear.

“You’re right!” she said. “It sounds like the Queen of Cups fits Mrs. Agreste perfectly.”

She’d get him with another card. She still had four left.

Since tarot was a lot about symmetry, Lila decided Position 6 would be the other side of the arrowhead. As for what it meant…tarot was also all about opposites.

“And while you should accept advice from her, you should be wary of advice from this source,” Lila explained, flipping the next card over.

The instant Lila saw the yellow she swiped the card from the glass.

“What’s this doing here?” she wondered with a light laugh, trying to cover. She made a grab for the deck in order to slip it back in, but Mr. Agreste was faster. He grabbed it and left her grasping at nothing.

“What card is that, Miss Rossi?” Mr. Agreste asked tightly.

Lila could tell by his tone that it was not in her best interest to hide it from him. “It’s nothing, really! Look, see?” She put down the card, The Chariot. “It just doesn’t make sense. I must’ve made a mistake. Happens to even the best tarot readers sometimes.”

“A girl of your caliber? I highly doubt it. Have more faith in your abilities, Miss Rossi. Or do you think I’ve made a mistake, asking you to do my readings?”

Internally, Lila seethed, but she plastered a smile on her face and pushed forward. “Not at all! You’re right, Mr. Agreste. Thank you so much for the vote of confidence! Let’s see here…” How could she spin this? The Chariot was one of her favorite cards. It was about winning. Self-confidence. Getting your way.

Wait…

Lila’s eyes narrowed. This card wasn’t about her, was it? She dismissed the thought almost immediately, chastising herself. People saw what they wanted to see in tarot cards—the cards didn’t actually know stuff. Granted, the deck had been oddly lucky so far, but that meant nothing. Lila was just good at spinning cards, that’s all.

“You seem concerned…” observed Mr. Agreste, snapping Lila from her thoughts.  
  
“Oh. Um. Just thinking. The Chariot is a card about…” Maybe she could pin this on someone else. She looked up at Mr. Agreste and got an idea. It was dangerous, but it might just work. “…The ego.”

“The ego.”

“That’s right! You have a strong will and a great confidence, Mr. Agreste. That might rub some people the wrong way, but there is a reason why you are a leader in your industry. Like you said before, nobody influences you. But…perhaps that is an issue.”

Silence.

Lila bit her lower lip and refused to look up. She knew what she was doing was akin to poking a sleeping bear with a stick.

“Miss Rossi…” said Mr. Agreste, his voice thicker than normal. “Are you implying that I should be wary of advice I give myself? Seems your reading of the Five of Swords was wrong then.”  
  
“You misunderstand, Mr. Agreste! The Five of Swords warned you to be careful of outsiders. But that has closed you off so much that you refuse to accept advice from anyone other than yourself.”

“How dare you!? I was just telling you that I trust the advice of my wife!”

“You trust the memories of that advice.”

“…Excuse me?”

“With all due respect, Mr. Agreste, your wife can’t give you advice right now. She’s not here. But there are others—”

“This is preposterous! Forget about The Chariot. Move on to the next card.”

Try as Lila might, she just couldn’t get this reading to turn fully in her favor. Now she was only getting through by the skin of her teeth. She wished she could end the reading there and hopefully come out no worse for wear, but there were still three cards left on the table.

Once again, Lila found herself stuck on the idea of past/present/future. She was wary about trying to read the past, but Mr. Agreste was pretty vulnerable at the moment. It dawned on her that she could take advantage of his emotional state to get him to read it for her.

Lila folded her hands. “Mr. Agreste…this situation you find yourself in, the one where you wonder what your next step is…you’ve been dealing with it for some time now, haven’t you?”

“That’s not difficult to ascertain.”

“There is something you did in the past though that helped. Did you know that? The cards do. So tell me what you see.”

Lila flipped over the next card. For a brief moment she thought it was upside-down, but then recognized it for what it was. The Hanged Man.

Brow furrowing, Lila wondered if perhaps The Chariot was the correct card after all. The Hanged Man was it’s opposite, highlighting the self-assertion aspect of The Chariot—the confident and forceful expression or promotion of oneself, one's views, or one's desires. So her reading had been right! This spread seemed to be working, even if it wasn’t for her. It was almost like…

Almost like the cards knew what Lila was thinking before she even thought it.

But that would be impossible. The cards weren’t in charge. She was.

“I see…someone who has given up. Someone who has relinquished their power,” said Mr. Agreste. “Yet that was helpful? How?”

“The Hanged Man works in mysterious ways,” mused Lila. “You know, I think this ties in with the vacation we were talking about earlier! In the past, did you travel when you didn’t know what to do next?”

“Enough with the vacations, Miss Rossi!”

“I’m just pointing out that, when we take a break to rest and recharge, it allows us to return focused and ready for whatever comes next.”

“And dare I ask what comes next? Or are you just going to give me the runaround again?”

“I asked you to be patient, Mr. Agreste,” Lila reminded. “I would never lie to you. The answers you seek are here.” Lila tapped the tip of the arrow. “But let’s focus on the present first. Taking a break helped center you in the past, but what are you currently doing right now, at this very moment, that is helping you?”

This was yet another chance for Lila to cement in Mr. Agreste’s mind that he had made the right choice in asking her to read his tarot cards. So it was disappointing when she flipped the second-to-last card over and found the golden tomb of the Four of Swords. Still, it reinforced many of the other cards that had come before it, so it’s not like it didn’t make sense in this position…

Lila shook her head. What was she even talking about? The cards were random! She could make sense out of anything! Saying that card was supposed to be there was like saying Mr. Agreste’s deck had a mind of its own.

…Could it have a mind of its own?

“Something the matter, Miss Rossi?” wondered Mr. Agreste.

“Oh, no! I was just thinking…the Four of Swords supports my reading of many previous cards,” Lila said. “Like the Seven of Pentacles, for instance. That only makes sense—both of the cards are in positions that focus on the present. You see the need to pause and reflect on your situation and are doing so. Isn’t that why you tried tarot in the first place?”  
  
“…Perhaps.”

“The Four of Swords also reinforces the Six of Swords. You need to rest and recover!”

“Recover.”

“Yes! And what better way then with a—”

“Don’t say it, Miss Rossi.”

“But The Hanged Man supports this too. Rest is a key theme. Rest and suspending activity.”

This was apparently the very wrong thing to say. If Mr. Agreste was simmering with anger before, he was boiling over now.

“Suspend!? What!? Never! You think you can trick me into stopping!?” Mr. Agreste slammed his hands down on the table, a piece of his pompadour falling down across his forehead. Lila squeaked and stumbled back. Apparently Mr. Agreste was more dedicated to his work than she previously thought. “I won’t stop," he continued. "I refuse to stop! I will keep going—I must keep going if it is the last thing I ever do!”

If Lila were being honest, she had never been so terrified in her life. Usually adults had the presence of mind not to yell at a child such as herself. Tears welled up in her eyes, more as a defense mechanism than anything else, but Mr. Agreste was not looking at her. He was glaring at the spread as if it had personally wronged him. He picked up the last unturned card and threw it down to see what it was. Lila caught sight of a figure in a black cloak before Mr. Agreste slammed his arm down and swept all the cards off the glass with a resounding roar of frustration.  
  
It had to have been the Five of Cups—there was no other. It was a card of loss, grief, and regret. That seemed more suitable for Mr. Agreste’s past, but Lila had already claimed that card as his future.

“I misspoke, Mr. Agreste!” Lila tried to insist. “That card isn’t—"

“Get. Out.”

“But—"

“Get out!!!”

Lila scrambled up out of the sunken sitting area and onto the floor before high-tailing it out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her. She knew she was supposed to stay for dinner, but self-preservation had taken a hold of her. She was out of the house and almost to the gate before she realized she had left her bag. Her house key was in there, not to mention her Métro card.

She had no choice—she had to go back.

Returning to the mansion’s foyer, Lila stared at the door to Mr. Agreste’s atelier. Had she shut it on her way out? Or had Mr. Agreste closed it after leaving the room? Lila sidled up to it and put her ear against it, just to be safe. She couldn’t hear anything, so she turned the handle and tried her luck.

Mr. Agreste was still in the room, but he had his back to her. He was standing before his wife’s painting again only…the painting was no longer there. Blinking, Lila realized it had been opened, like a door, and behind it was an alcove with three shelves filled with books and papers. She watched Mr. Agreste place the tarot cards inside before slamming the heavy metal door shut.  
  
_It’s a safe!_ Lila realized. He was putting his tarot cards in there for safekeeping. She idly wondered why Mr. Agreste used them for readings at all if they were apparently that valuable.  
  
This was soon followed by another realization though: how much hot water Lila was going to be in the moment Mr. Agreste turned around. She darted towards her bag, hoping to be in and out before Mr. Agreste caught her. Unfortunately, the rubber sole of her ballet flat squeaked on the marble tile, alerting him to her presence.

“What are you still doing here?” the man demanded. He paused, an idea taking root in his mind. “Were you just spying on me!?”

“No, Mr. Agreste. Not at all, Mr. Agreste! I’ll just get…let me get my bag…” She grabbed it and backed away quickly, averting her eyes. “I’m leaving now. Sorry to bother you!”

Lila was pretty sure that was the last time she was ever going to read Mr. Agreste’s cards. Which was a downright shame, because she was starting to get the feeling that there was something special about them.

She was starting to get the feeling that they were always right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: "What Do I Do Next?" Tarot Spread by Netzach (with an assist on the last three cards by firecatpickles)
> 
> https://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=52753


	5. The Hierophant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! Hope everyone is doing well during these weird times. I am back to work, so less time to write, but more time to be inspired! Let's see here...We've gotten plenty of Lila so far, a little Adrigami, and now it's time for some Marinette! 
> 
> The reading this chapter will be a little bit different than normal. Previous readings have all been done with the magic deck, baring one instance of Lila stacking the deck. So what if the deck isn't magical or planned? I use a random tarot card generator. That's right! I did a tarot reading for real this time and it actually turned out pretty neat! This is also the first time in story when someone reads themselves. It's a little shorter than normal, but I hope you guys like it ^_^
> 
> Today's shoutout belongs to...Windona! Thanks for commenting. It means so much to me as a writer when people do that!

“Miraculous Ladybug!”  
  
Marinette threw her Lucky Charm, a raincoat, into the air. It exploded in a ring of pink light, summoning a swam of ladybugs. The insects separated and shot off into eight different directions, scrubbing away the mud and freeing the citizens of Paris from the clutches of Clay Ton’s sludge pits. The hardened mud encasing Chat Noir’s right leg vanished, and he was able to move freely once more. He jogged up to her with a huge smile plastered across his face.  
  
“Pound it!” they chorused together as they bumped fists.  
  
The Conciergerie Clock in its little alcove interrupted them by ringing out the time. Marinette spun to face it, her eyes wide. “It’s that late already!?” she cried.  
  
“Why? Got a hot date?” wondered Chat, waggling his eyebrows.  
  
“Not tonight, but I've gotta bug out!” She flung out her yo-yo and it hooked onto the top of the clock tower. “Bye Chaton!” she yelled over her shoulder as she went sailing up to the rooftops.  
  
Her Miraculous let her know she had three minutes before she changed back as she vaulted over chimneys and cartwheeled over dormers. Even with superpowers, she was still going to be a half hour late. If only she had Bunnix’s ability to burrow back in time! Then she’d be able to fit everything into her busy schedule, including random Akuma battles.  
  
Marinette ran until the Roue de Paris came into view, then took a peek down at the street below to orientate herself. The colonnades along the Tuileries all looked the same. She had overshot her destination more than I few times, but not today. She hopped down into an empty one-way street and concealed herself between two vans just as her Miraculous timed out.  
  
“Marinette…” started Tikki, exhausted.  
  
“No time!” said the girl, shoveling the Kwami into her purse.  
  
“But—”  
  
Marinette snapped her purse shut and booked it back to Rue de Rivoli and around the corner. She burst through _Voyance_ ’s door almost completely out of breath.  
  
“Sorry I’m late!” she cried as she leaned over, hands on her knees. “I lost…I lost track of…time…”  
  
“Goodness, darling!”  
  
Marinette looked up to find Madame Magda clutching a magazine to her chest, greatly taken aback. Today she was sporting a (somewhat) subtle space theme, with galaxy-patterned robes and a skullcap with bands reminiscent of Jupiter’s clouds. Around her neck swung a moon pendant.  
  
“Did you run all the way here from your parents’ bakery?” she wondered.  
  
It was only then that Marinette realized she was still covered in flour and wearing her apron from before she transformed. Her cheeks burned red as she struggled to take the apron off, the head loop getting caught on one of her pigtails. This must’ve been what Tikki was trying to warn her about.  
  
“I’m so sorry, Madame Magda! I just have a lot going on today.”  
  
“You have a lot going on every day,” said the woman with a chuckle, taking the apron out of Marinette’s hands and hanging it up. “Since you are so consistently late to our lessons, I didn’t expect you much before this time anyway. Come! I’ll make tea.”  
  
Madame Magda led the way to the backroom and Marinette finally had time to breathe. Even though tarot card lessons were yet another obligation on her ever-growing list, it was the only one that allowed her to rest. Madame Magda was a kind and accommodating teacher, allowing Marinette to set her own schedule. Even when she was unable to adhere to it, Madame Magda was never disappointed or offended. She just rolled with the punches and let Marinette be, like Luka.  
  
“Thank you,” said Marinette, meaning it with every fiber of her being as she collapsed on a plastic chair. She reached for a stone cup in the middle of the table and dragged it over to her while Madame Magda took some bottled water from her mini-fridge and dumped it into an electric tea kettle. She pressed down the switch to heat it up before prowling around her tea stock.  
  
“What do you think today?” the woman wondered. “Chamomile to calm your nerves? Sencha to boost your energy level?”  
  
“Have anything to help with all this pressure I’m under?”  
  
“Hibiscus it is!” chortled the woman, reaching into a box to pull out a scarlet teabag marked with concentric triangles. “Longevity. Stamina. Endurance.”

The water began to boil, issuing forth steam from the tip of the kettle. Madame Magda poured it into a stone teapot engraved with a trinity knot. It looked like something a witch would use, not that Marinette was surprised. Madame Magda loves her aesthetics.  
  
“On a more serious note…” The woman lightly dunked the tea bag into the pot and let it steep as the mirth faded from her face. “If these lessons are too much, you can stop them at any time. I won’t be offended, I promise.”  
  
“Oh, no, Madame Magda! I told Adrien I would help and I’m not going back on that.”  
  
“…And your crush on him has nothing to do with it?”  
  
Marinette colored, but only a little. She was honestly surprised this hadn’t come up sooner. “He’s with Kagami now,” she insisted, knowing what Madame Magda knew about her. “Besides…I’ve moved on to someone else.”  
  
“Oh? Did you change your mind about that boy on the Internet?”  
  
For one brief moment, Marinette forgot she lied about Chat Noir to Madame Magda during her love reading. How else could she explain that a boy was in love with her, but she didn’t know his name? When her mind caught up though, she shook her head.  
  
“No, the other boy I talked about. Luka.”  
  
“The one who told you to go after Adrien?” recalled Madame Magda, reaching over to pour them tea. It came out a deep reddish-purple.  
  
“He’s been very patient with me, allowing me to take my own time in choosing him.”  
  
“What a gentleman! What’s he like?”  
  
“Oh, he’s easygoing and charming and kind and generous. He’s always able to cheer me up when I feel sad. He’s so intuitive too. He always knows exactly what I’m feeling and expresses it through music.”  
  
“So he’s a musician.”  
  
“Yeah! Mostly guitar. He’s been playing since he was a baby. He’s in a band with some of my friends—that’s how we met.”  
  
Madame Magda blew on her tea before taking a dainty little sip. “Sounds like a Queen of Pentacles if I’ve ever heard of one.”  
  
“You think…?”  
  
“Come now, darling, you know this one.”  
  
“Right. The Queen of Pentacles is…” Marinette scrunched up her face as she tried to remember all the attributes. “Nurturing.” Luka was a huge comfort to her whenever she was feeling overwhelmed. “Big-hearted.” He got Akumatized for her sake and refused to hurt her as Silencer. “Down-to-earth.” He assured her that she could just be herself around him. “Resourceful.” He was able to take Desperada down as Viperion. “And…uh…oh! Trustworthy!” He was always there for her. Always.  
  
“Brava, Marinette!” cheered Madame Magda.  
  
It felt good to succeed at something with flying colors for once rather than barely get by. Marinette couldn’t help but grin into her cup as she tried the tea. She was immediately won over by its tart cranberry flavor. It’s warmth flowed through her as she and Madame Magda sat in companionable silence for a moment.  
  
“I really enjoy our time together, Madame Magda,” said Marinette, thoughtful. “I think that’s another reason why I want to keep up with these lessons. You remind me of my old mentor a lot. We had to stop meeting because…because of his health. It was awful. I felt so alone and stressed out about my responsibilities without him to guide me. But ever since I started meeting with you…I don’t know. It’s been a bit easier.”  
  
The woman reached over and patted Marinette’s hand. “I’m glad I can help, darling. And I think tarot can help you too. What do you say about giving yourself a reading today on your own?”  
  
Marinette flinched. “Are you sure? I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet…”  
  
“You won’t know if you can fly unless you jump! You can try that Daily Reading Spread I’ve been having you study.”  
  
“O…kay.”  
  
Marinette knew the spread well, and what all the cards meant, but she still felt like she was missing something when it came to tarot. Madame Magda was right though—she’d have to leave the nest someday. With a shaking hand, she reached into her purse, Tikki helpfully handing over her deck.  
  
She had come a long way from her first shuffle where she dropped all the cards. Her movements weren’t fast, but they were pretty and neat. Rhythmic, almost, like a sewing machine. As per Madame Magda's instruction, Marinette shuffled the deck three times, split it into three piles, then reassembled the deck before laying cards face down on the table in front of her. The first was placed vertically, the second was placed horizontally next to it, the third was placed vertically over the second, and the forth was placed vertically alongside the first and third.  
  
“Talk me through it, darling,” instructed Madame Magda.  
  
“Um…right. Position 1 is a past influence, something that happened recently that is still affecting me,” said Marinette.  
  
“Precisely. This card is related to the mind. The events that affect us are in the past, so they only exist up here.” She tapped her head.  
  
Nodding, Marinette flipped over the card furthest to her left. A young man in tunic and tights hung from a T-shaped tree by his ankle. Behind his head was a pale, yellow orb, like the kind that marked saints in medieval paintings. It was an interesting card and not one Marinette had come across in a reading yet, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t know what it was.  
  
“The Hanged Man,” she said. “It stands for letting go, reversing or stopping an action, and sacrifice.”  
  
“What do you think it’s talking about?”

Marinette closed her eyes, taken back to the moment she stood before André’s ice cream stand with Adrien and Kagami by her side. They could only pick two of the three flavors and Adrien asked her to decide which pairing was best because he trusted her. It wasn’t about ice cream though—it was about them. The memory played anew, the words different but the meaning the same.  
  
André sang: “Kagami and Adrien are a perfect pair who will always be a success. Nothing can turn their relationship into a mess. Marinette and Adrien are an explosive mix, that's a fact, but, as they often say, opposites attract. Kagami and Marinette together is quite unusual, it's true. It’s not the most obvious, but it works for you two.” He paused. “So, what will it be?”

“I don't know,” said Marinette. She was in love with Adrien and cared about Kagami. Hurting either of them was out of the question. So, she did the only thing she could think to do: she hurt herself. “Me and Adrien are pretty different…I guess we don’t make as great of a pair as I thought. And what if he thinks I’m lame and wants to be with Kagami instead? Kagami and Adrien are awesome together. And Kagami and I…we’re so different too. She’s better for Adrien. So…”  
  
For the good of her friends, she conceded Adrien to Kagami and left.  
  
“Marinette?” wondered Madame Magda gently, bringing her back.  
  
“I had to let go of my crush on Adrien,” she explained. “It wasn’t going anywhere, and it was standing in the way of him and Kagami getting together.”  
  
Madame Magda’s face drooped. “Oh, darling…I can’t imagine how difficult that sacrifice must’ve been for you, especially since it is represented by a card of the Major Arcana.”  
  
“Sometimes choices can be so hard…But things are better this way. Adrien and Kagami are very happy together.”  
  
“But what about you?”  
  
“I’m…” The word was on the tip of her tongue. _Happy. I’m happy too._ And why wouldn’t she be? She was with the most amazing guy now, one who thought the world of her and wanted to be more than just friends. But she knew, deep down, that saying she was happy would be a lie. Someday she would be over Adrien, but that day was not today. “I’m getting there,” she said honestly.  
  
“You take your time, darling. Maybe the next card can help you.”  
  
“Huh? …Oh! That’s right! Position 2 is present potential. It’s how I am at this present moment. What’s happening around me? What do I need to understand?”  
  
“Very good. If Position 1 is all about the mind, then this one is all about the body since you physically exist only in this very moment. Fire away!”  
  
Turning over the second card, Marinette saw the sword and recalled receiving it during Madame Magda’s second reading, when she was Ladybug. It was what her and Chat needed to defeat Hawk Moth, a mission that was never far from her mind.  
  
“This is the Ace of Swords,” said Marinette. “It’s a very powerful card about truth and justice. It kind of reminds me of Alya, now that I think about it.”  
  
“Miss Césaire is a Page of Swords for a reason.”  
  
Marinette giggled. “That’s right! But the Ace of Swords specifically warns of a difficulty that I need to face with courage, honesty, and determination.”  
  
“Correct! So, what do you think this difficulty is?”  
  
Marinette grimaced. She already knew it was Hawk Moth. She had to find out who he was and bring him to justice. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something she could share with Madame Magda. So, she examined her life for another situation that required the clean, sharp energy of the Ace of Swords. Something unjust or confusing that she wanted to set right. Something that required her to be honest and ethical, even though it was hard…  
  
She almost smacked herself in the head. The answer was obvious.  
  
“It’s my classmate, Lila,” Marinette explained. “She’s does more than just give Mr. Agreste fake tarot readings. She lies about everything and no one seems to realize it but me. And I guess Adrien a little. It’s just so frustrating! And when I tried to confront her about it, she threatened me and said she’d turn all my friends against me if I stood up to her. She even got me expelled for a couple of days by claiming I cheated on a test, pushed her down the stairs, and stole her necklace. I almost got Akumatized!”  
  
Madame Magda’s eyes widened, her bare brow wrinkling, as she clutched her cup to her bosom. “Goodness! She sounds like one bad apple!”  
  
“You got that right. I want to expose her for the fake that she is, but it feels impossible, especially since I refuse to stoop to her level. And now that she has Mr. Agreste’s ear…I’m afraid of what she’ll do. He’s a very powerful man and she’s a very manipulative girl. I can understand why Adrien is so worried.”  
  
“Well, rest assured, darling, the Ace of Swords is your present potential. I don’t know if you’ll succeed against Lila or not, but you do have the inner resources to overcome her! You just have to access them.”  
  
“Do you think she’s my challenge?” wondered Marinette, pawing at the only horizontal card on the table. Who would Lila even be in tarot? None of them seemed to match her because no card was pure evil.  
  
“Your challenge could be anything. A personal problem, an interpersonal conflict—any opposing force, really. There is only one way to find out though.”  
  
Marinette pulled the card out from under the Ace of Swords and turned it over to find a chaotic eyesore. A king sat on a throne adorned with bulls, wearing a robe in a loud grapevine pattern. He held a scepter in one hand and a pentacle in the other. Wild greenery grew around him.  
  
“The King of Pentacles,” said Marinette. “Reliable. Supportive. Resourceful. Clever. Successful…” She sagged. “I think this is who I want to be right now…but I can’t.”  
  
“Why not?” wondered Madame Magda.  
  
“I’ve taken on too much. I-I want to tell people no, but they’re counting on me and I don’t want to let them down. Some stuff I don’t really have a choice about, like school, my parents’ bakery…” _Being Ladybug, being the Guardian._ Marinette sighed. “But there are a lot of other things I should’ve never agreed to, but did anyway, like being class representative, babysitting, joining art club, designing commissions—”  
  
“Learning tarot,” said Madame Magda innocently, sipping her tea.  
  
“I already told you, these are important! And they give me a bit of a break.”  
  
“I’m just teasing you, darling. But it does sound like you have a lot on your plate. It’s difficult for you to meet all your commitments when you’re being pulled in so many different directions. Is there anything you can drop or take a step back on?”

Marinette thought about the disappointment she would face and shook her head.  
  
“Then is there anyone who can help you? Someone with the energy of the King of Pentacles perhaps? You don’t have to do this all on your own, Marinette.”  
  
No one was an exact fit, but a few people came to mind. Her parents, who were always willing to lend a hand or an ear when they could. Alya, who always stood by Marinette’s side, even when they disagreed. Chat Noir, who backed her up and trusted her implicitly. Luka, who was there for her whenever and wherever she needed him. Madame Magda, who offered her a safe place to talk and plenty of tea. The problem was, she loved all those people and refused to burden them any more than she already had. Besides, none of them could help her with being the new Guardian. The only one who could no longer remembered his previous duties…. or her, for that matter.  
  
“I know,” was all she said, moving on. “Last card! Future opportunity. At the end of the day, this should be the outcome.”  
  
“It’s related to your spirit, darling. It is our spirit with which we undertake action that directs the outcome.”  
  
“My spirit…” Marinette repeated, intrigued by this idea.  
  
Flipping the card in Position 4 revealed a sullen young man sitting cross-legged on a hill beneath a tree, a cloud offering him a cup. He turned his nose up at it. There were three more cups at the bottom.  
  
“The Four of Cups,” said Marinette. “Self-interest, apathy, and introspection.” She made a face. “That doesn’t sound good at all!”  
  
“Take it piece by piece,” suggested Madame Magda. “Like we talked about.”  
  
“Right…” Marinette concentrated hard on the card. “It’s in a position of opportunity, so I should look at the card in a positive light. Self-interest doesn’t always mean selfishness. Sometimes it means focusing on yourself. I’m always doing things for other people and not for me. I need to take time for myself or else I’m gonna burn out and be no good to anyone.”  
  
“What an accurate read!” said Madame Magda, her beady eyes sparkling. “The Four of Cups can represent a positive period of self-reflection and renewal. By taking the time to dream, to muse, to reflect, you restore your emotional balance.”  
  
“So that’s it, then. That’s my path to becoming more like the King of Pentacles. Only then can I come to terms with The Hanged Man and use the Ace of Swords to stop Lila.”  
  
“I’ll say it again, darling. Brava!”  
  
Marinette couldn’t explain it, but it felt like a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders. All her responsibilities remained, but she suddenly saw a path through the difficult terrain. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was completely within her grasp. All she needed to do was reach for it.  
  
Madame Magda leaned back, her chair creaking beneath her. “Honestly, Marinette, I’m not sure how much more I can teach you,” she said.  
  
The light got snuffed out.  
  
“W-what…!?” Marinette cried, limbs flailing. She nearly spilled her tea. “But there are still so many spreads to learn! What about reversed cards? Shuffling methods? I still don’t quite get The Fool’s Journey if I’m being completely honest…”  
  
“Calm down, darling! We can still meet, of course, but you won’t be my student anymore, just a fellow tarot reader.”  
  
“But that wasn’t like when you gave me a reading at all! I was just talking out loud.”  
  
Madame Magda pointed towards the spread with her pinky. “You used the cards to guide yourself, exactly as they were intended.”  
  
“But are they right?”  
  
“That, my dear, is up to you.”  
  
Marinette blinked. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”  
  
Bobbing her head, Madame Magda leaned forward conspiratorially. “Did I ever tell you that I gave Chloé Bourgeois a reading?”  
  
“Chloé!? Really?”  
  
Marinette glanced at the door that led back into the shop. She couldn’t imagine Chloé entering _Voyance_ of her own free will, but maybe she had heard of Madame Magda and her readings and decided to give them a shot. Despite her bravado, the girl was extremely insecure.  
  
“Customer confidentially is important, so let’s keep this our little secret, but she seemed interested in finding out how to get the Bee Miraculous back,” explained Madame Magda. “This was a while ago, not long after the day of the red Akumas, but the cards advised her to sacrifice her need for control, to listen to Ladybug and improve herself. She refused to do these things and allowed the negative aspects of her personality to overcome her. She became petulant and jealous. Instead of gaining the Bee Miraculous permanently, she’s probably been stripped of it forever.”  
  
It was strange to hear about Chloé’s downfall from someone else, and a little sad. In another life, maybe the bully had turned over a new leaf. As things stood now though, Marinette was in the market for a new holder of the Bee Miraculous.  
  
“The point is, the cards are only as right as you make them,” continued Madame Magda. “They are simply a resource, a tool. Advice. For example, you can choose to continue to run yourself ragged, Marinette—nothing is stopping you—but because you saw the Four of Cups, you realized that you need to take time for yourself. Would you have figured that on your own? Perhaps. But the cards brought it into focus.”  
  
“I think I get it. It’s not about the cards. At least, not really. It’s about me.”  
  
“Precisely! The reader and the querent. In this case they are one in the same, so it’s a lot easier to understand and listen to the cards. That’s why it’s so important when you are either one or the other to be honest, keep an open mind, and establish a dialogue.”  
  
“That’s something I’ll have to work on,” said Marinette. She wasn’t in any kind of shape to give Mr. Agreste a reading just yet—she felt like she could barely read herself.  
  
“You’re getting there,” said Madame Magda, echoing Marinette’s words from earlier with a grin. “Now, how about some more tea while you vent about this awful Lila girl?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Daily Reading Spread
> 
> https://www.ellistrations.net/card-spread---daily-reading.html


	6. The Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Lukanette time!
> 
> I guess to make up for Chapter 3 not having a reading, there are two readings this chapter. And one of those readings has to be a Celtic Cross, of course, because, it's like, traditional. Both readings are also done with Marinette's non-magical deck so, once again, the cards were picked at random...save for one. Whoops. Hand slipped. But can you guess which one? And, no, it's surprisingly not The Lovers.
> 
> The shout out this time goes to...MaurLin for doing a phenomenal reading of Marinette's cards from last chapter. It's a lot less bias and more cohesive. If Madame Magda had read the cards instead of Marinette, it might have turned out similarly. I'm not sure how many people are up for reading comments, but I highly recommend this one if you like tarot!

The old houseboat creaked as it rocked from side to side, the sound mingling with the dulcet tones of Luka’s guitar. He laid on his back on his bed, stockinged feet up against the yellow wall as he strummed random chords. Sometimes Marinette would catch snippets of a Kitty Section song and hum along, singing the lyrics in her head.  
  
_You know I love unicorns, and that they make me feel better!_  
  
Mostly, though, she was focused on the tarot cards spread out on the bamboo mat around her. She had been trying to give herself an eastern zodiac reading. It made sense considering she was now the Guardian of Kwami who took on those forms, but twelve cards were a lot to handle. She kept on getting confused on how they related with one another and eventually lost her train of thought entirely. With a sigh, she gathered the cards back up into her deck again.  
  
The tune Luka was playing changed and Marinette recognized it almost immediately. It was her song, soft and sweet. She stole a glance at Luka, but his eyes were closed. Marinette knew he could sense her frustration though and that he was quietly trying to encourage her without prying.  
  
Grinning, Marinette looked down at her deck and suddenly got an idea. She shuffled her cards three times and cut the deck three times before arranging a simple three-card spread. The possibilities were endless with a three card spread—past/present/future, situation/action/outcome, what I think/what I feel/what I do—but, for this specific one, Marinette felt inspired to do a love reading for her and Luka.  
  
She put her hand down on the card furthest to her left and thought, _What do I want from our relationship?_  
  
She turned it over to find The Lovers and smiled. The man, the woman, the fiery-haired angel with his scarlet wings and billowing gray robes—it was a very apropos card for the spread. Marinette remembered how disappointed she had been in her first reading with Madame Magda when the card had failed to appear. Now that she knew more about it though, she realized it wasn’t that big of a deal. Love came in many forms, and even The Lovers didn’t always mean love. Sometimes it meant discovering who you were, establishing personal beliefs, and finding out what truly mattered.  
  
Marinette frowned. But what she wanted from Luka was a relationship based in deep love, right? She wasn’t trying to figure anything out. She knew what she wanted, and she wanted him. That’s why she broke down in front of him and no one else. He was the only one she trusted enough to be vulnerable around. If that wasn’t love, then what was it? Her and Luka sympathized with one another and shared a wordless connection. It was everything Marinette could have hoped for in a relationship, and more.  
  
Satisfied, she moved on to the next card. _What does Luka want from our relationship?_  
  
Marinette flipped over a card she was intimately familiar with—The King of Wands. The natural ruler with the lion motif. Creative, inspiring. A leader. It was her card, the one Madame Magda had given her as Ladybug. She blushed at the thought. Luka wanted her. That was it. Simple. Easy. She didn’t have to do anything or be anyone. Herself was just fine.  
  
Suddenly, pessimism set in. Marinette bit her lower lip and touched The Lovers. Why wasn’t her card the Queen of Pentacles then, the one that represented Luka? Was he not good enough for her? Did she want more than just him? Was she more in love with the idea of being in a relationship than with the boy she was in a relationship with?  
  
Slamming a hand down on the last card, Marinette hoped for clarity. Position 3 in this spread was supposed to tell her where her and Luka’s relationship was heading.  
  
It was the Two of Cups. Like The Lovers, this card depicted a man and a woman. It was no angel, but a red-winged lion head looked down as the couple toasted each other with their goblets. In fact, the Two of Cups was the minor arcana counterpart to The Lovers, reinforcing a theme of union and connection. It went a long way in easing Marinette’s mind, but she knew no card was completely positive. Besides connection and attraction, the Two of Cups also served as a warning. Her relationship with Luka had the potential to create disharmony.  
  
Her mind immediately went to Chat Noir.  
  
“What are you thinking about?” asked Luka.  
  
Marinette flinched and quickly swept the cards away. “Nothing! I mean, uh, n-not nothing, nothing. Just—”  
  
“Marinette. Relax.” The boy flipped around so his feet were now on the ground. He leaned over his guitar, his pale aqua eyes considering her with a fair amount of concern. “There’s no reason to be anxious. I’m sure your tarot skills are coming along just fine.”  
  
“I don’t know…”  
  
“Don’t sell yourself short. I have a feeling that you’re almost ready to read someone other than yourself. And when that time comes, I’ll be here.”  
  
“…You?”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“But…” Marinette had planned for Adrien to be the first person she read. After all, she was doing this for him. But now that Luka had offered, she silently berated herself for not thinking of him first. “You know what?” she said suddenly. “I think I am ready.”  
  
The boy jumped up, an eager smile lighting up his face. “Really?”  
  
“Yeah! Thanks, Luka.”  
  
He gently put his guitar down next to his amp and settled in across from her, crossing his legs and tugging at his mottled sweatshirt until he was comfortable.  
  
“I’m going to do a Celtic Cross for you,” Marinette explained as she shuffled her deck. She could use the practice of a larger spread. “It’s one of the most basic but comprehensive open readings. It’s great for people who have never had a tarot reading before—you don’t even need to ask a question.”  
  
“So it’s like an exploration of the soul. I really dig that.”  
  
“Here.” Marinette handed him her deck. “Shuffle the cards any way you want.”  
  
Nodding, Luka split the deck in two and waterfalled the cards once before offering them back.  
  
“…That’s it?” Marinette wondered.  
  
“You did a pretty good job already,” he said, his gaze steady. Marinette had a hard time meeting it without feeling heat creep up into her cheeks.  
  
“T-thank you,” she said, tucking some hair behind her ear.

She took the cards back and began to lay them out, only to realize she was setting the reading up for herself. She quickly rearranged the four cards that were already down, so they now faced Luka. She hoped he didn’t notice. It was impossible to tell though since he was so nonchalant.  
  
Marinette carefully finished arranging the rest of the spread. It took on the form of a plus sign with a line to the right of it as it faced Luka.  
  
“This is a weird spread since you flip cards over two at a time instead of one at a time,” said Marinette.  
  
“Like the tarot spread version of uncommon time,” suggested Luka.  
  
“Maybe? They’re, uh, used to inform one another. Like if I have trouble narrowing down the meaning of one card, the other can help.” Marinette leaned forward and tapped the two cards stacked in the middle of the plus sign. “The first two cards are all about an issue you’re facing right now. The one in Position 1…” Marinette wiggled the horizontal card on top. “…is your present, while the one beneath it in Position 2 is an immediate challenge. Ready to find out what they are?”  
  
Luka nodded, so Marinette grabbed one in each hand and turned them over at the same time. The first was the Nine of Swords. It was a dark card, with a figure in white holding their head in their hands. Marinette thought it meant something much worse the first time she saw it, but now she knew no one single card foretold complete doom. The second card threw her off though. It was The Star, where a woman poured out two pitchers of water. It opposed the Nine of Swords, yet they were both supposed to be Luka’s present issue. How did that work?  
  
_Take it piece by piece_ , Marinette was forced to remind herself.  
  
“Okay, so this is the Nine of Swords,” she explained.  
  
Mirth glimmered in Luka’s eyes. “I can see that.”  
  
Nine swords took up most of the card.  
  
“Ah, r-right,” said Marinette, slightly embarrassed. “It, um…it represents fears and doubts. You know, like, ‘Did I do the right thing? Will everything work out okay? What’s going to happen next?’ That kind of stuff.” The kind of stuff Marinette herself worried about all the time.  
  
“I get it,” said Luka, bobbing his head. “Yeah. Lately I’ve been worrying about a lot of people in my life. I love my mom, but she can be a little…over-the-top sometimes.”  
  
“That’s one way to put it,” said Marinette. The woman spoke like a pirate, loved a good mess, and got Akumatized over a noise complaint.  
  
“I just don’t want her to get in trouble. And then there’s Jul. You know how self-conscious she can be. She’s so afraid to put herself out there. She needs to, but sometimes she can get hurt and there’s nothing I can do about it.”  
  
Juleka’s multiple Akumaizations into Reflekta came to mind.  
  
“And then there’s you…”  
  
Marinette blinked, then pointed to herself. Luka laughed.  
  
“Yes, you! When Mr. Roth threatened your dreams…I couldn’t stand to see you suffer, but I felt like there was nothing I could do to stop him.” He gave himself a self-deprecating smile. “I guess that’s why I let myself get Akumatized. I craved the power so I’d be able to do something.”  
  
“That wasn’t your fault,” insisted Marinette. “Hawk Moth took advantage of you.”  
  
“But getting Akumatized is also a choice. Hawk Moth can’t do it unless you agree to his deal. Honestly, I’m lucky I didn’t hurt you.”  
  
“You would never!”  
  
“But that ‘what if?’ still keeps me up at night, like that guy on the card.”  
  
Marinette looked down at the spread and imagined Luka on the Nine of Swords. It broke her heart, so she did what she could and nudged The Star forward. “Well, if it helps at all, this card opposes the guilt and anguish of the Nine of Swords with serenity and peace of mind.”  
  
“A star, huh?” the boy asked, reading the bottom. He straightened up. “That’s what I wanna be.”  
  
“It’s your challenge though.”  
  
“I know. Serenity and peace of mind? That stuff’s not easy. Look at what happened when I lost my cool with Mr. Roth. I did some things I regret, even if I don’t remember them. That’s one of the reasons why I play music.” Luka reached behind him for his guitar and began to play a tune that required his fingers to jump around to different frets. It was hard and fast and angry, but eventually mellowed out into something calm and relaxing. “It’s a great outlet,” Luka explained after a moment. “And it helps keep me centered.”  
  
“That makes sense!” agreed Marinette. “The Star also stands for being inspired, which goes together with your music. Your emotions and the emotions of others inspire your songs.”  
  
Luka stopped playing suddenly and gave her a soft look. “You know, you’re really good at this, Marinette.”  
  
“Only because you’re so open and honest,” Marinette conceded, remembering Madame Magda’s words.  
  
Luka put his guitar away again and scooted a little closer. “Okay, what’s next?”  
  
“That would be the distant past and the best outcome.”  
  
“How distant?”  
  
“Depends. But something had to have happened that caused your current problems.”  
  
Turning over the cards that made up the bottom and top of the plus, Marinette found Justice and The Chariot.  
  
“Oh!” she cried.  
  
“Good news?” wondered Luka, pouring over the two cards himself. Marinette wondered what he thought about what he saw. One card was of a red-robed woman holding a sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other. The other depicted a man decked out in gold and silver armor being pulled in a procession by a pair of sphinxes.  
  
“The Chariot, definitely yes,” said Marinette.  
  
“What about this other one?”  
  
Marinette considered Justice for a moment. As far as tarot cards went, it was pretty self-explanatory and a good fit for Luka. He was concerned about doing what was right and making sure others received their due. That’s why he went with her to TVi studios to confront Mr. Roth and XY for stealing from Kitty Section. It was also another reason why he got Akumatized. He told her himself as Silencer that he planned to use the power Hawk Moth gave him to restore justice. Even if it were actually revenge, Marinette knew Luka’s original intentions were pure. It was a shame Hawk Moth had taken advantage of that.  
  
_Oh, I think I get it!_ thought Marinette.  
  
“Justice has an unconscious effect on your life,” she said slowly. “Like what the card represents, you are all about doing what’s right, but you’re also all about taking responsibility for others, making decisions, and understanding connections. When Hawk Moth first appeared, you probably recognized his potential to take advantage of the emotions of the people you cared about most and twisting them. That’s pretty terrifying!”  
  
“I never really gave it much thought before, but you’re right…” said Luka, thoughtful. “I tried to prevent my mom and Jul from getting Akumatized by supporting them so they wouldn’t fall to negative emotions, but it happened anyway. Worst of all, I couldn’t even prevent it from happening to myself. I just felt so…so…”  
  
“Powerless?”  
  
“Yeah. Powerless.”  
  
“Well, The Chariot is the very opposite of that. It’s all about gaining power and control. If your goal is to keep calm and protect the people you love, then that’s your best outcome.”  
  
“If that’s the case, then I think I’m already on my way.”  
  
“What makes you say that?”  
  
His smile became secretive as he shrugged. “Just a feeling I have.”  
  
It dawned on Marinette that Luka was referring to the Snake Miraculous. All he wanted was to fight back against Hawk Moth and protect his loved ones. With Sass by his side, he finally could.  
  
Marinette suddenly wanted to smack herself for being so obtuse. If it wasn’t obvious before, it was glaringly obvious now that she should’ve given Luka the Snake Miraculous, not Adrien. Justice all but spelled it out for her. Luka was motivated by justice, and his maturity allowed him to shoulder the responsibility of being a hero. Because of his composed nature, he was able to make the decisions necessary when using Second Chance. By recognizing cause and effect, he was able to help defeat Desperada and other Akumas. Thank goodness Adrien had corrected her mistake!  
  
“That’s great!” Marinette cheered. “But I’m sure the injustice of Hawk Moth still bothers you. He might have an impact on the next two cards.”  
  
“What are they?” Luka wondered.  
  
“The recent past and the immediate future.”  
  
“Didn’t you just do the past?”  
  
“That’s the distant past, which still bothers you. The recent past is usually something you’ve already resolved.”  
  
“But then how is it tied to the immediate future if it’s no longer an issue?”  
  
“Because they’re opposites. A receding influence vs. an approaching one. Something you’re done with vs. something that’s coming.”  
  
“Diminuendo vs. crescendo.”  
  
“That’s a good way to think about it! Tarot is full of opposites.”  
  
“Like my first two cards. Do you think the next ones will be opposites too?”  
  
“Maybe. It’s random. But any set of cards is going to tell you something if you talk through them and apply them to your life. Ready?”  
  
Luka nodded, so Marinette flipped over the last two cards that made up the plus sign. The first was of a man clothed in scarlet, holding the scales of justice, which was quickly becoming a running theme. He dropped four coins into the hands of a beggar while another beggar watched. This was the Six of Pentacles. The second showed a young man, sitting much like Luka was now, being offered a cup—the Four of Cups. Marinette thought back to her first time reading her own cards without any help from Madame Magda not too long ago. She’d gotten the Four of Cups then too.  
  
“That card looks like a choice,” observed Luka, inclining his head towards the Six of Pentacles.  
  
“I can see why you’d think that,” decided Marinette, chewing on her tongue. “The Six of Pentacles is a card of opposites. Having vs. not having. It’s one of the hardest cards to read in tarot because it covers this huge middle ground where it is not clear exactly who has what.”  
  
“So there’s something I had or didn’t have in the past, but has since been resolved.” He looked up at her, eyes glimmering. “That’s easy, Marinette. I didn’t have you.”  
  
Marinette slid backward, limbs flailing. “Wha…!?”  
  
“I told you before, Marinette. You’re the music that’s been playing inside my head since the first day we met. I knew you were in love with Adrien though, and it seemed cruel to force my feelings on you if you didn’t reciprocate them. I could never hurt you like that. So, I let you go, time and time again, because if you and I were meant to be, it would happen. And look at us now.”  
  
He reached over and gently took her hand. With a stupid grin on her face, Marinette squeezed it. They remained like that as she took a second look at the new cards.  
  
“That makes a lot of sense,” she said. “I wish the Four of Cups was as clear.”  
  
“What does it mean?” wondered Luka, tracing small circles with his thumb on the back of her hand.  
  
“It’s about focusing on yourself, which could be a good or bad thing. Like, lately, the Four of Cups told me that I needed to take time for myself and do what I wanted to do, like spend time with you.”  
  
Luka raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been wondering why your schedule suddenly opened up. This is the most I’ve ever seen you. Looks like I have this card to thank.” He bowed to it and Marinette giggled.  
  
“But…” She knotted her eyebrows. “I don’t think you have trouble focusing on yourself when you need it, so the Four of Cups must be warning you of some kind of upcoming selfishness or apathy instead. Maybe you get too wrapped up in your music. Or maybe it’s the opposite of that. Maybe you feel less inspired and your music suffers because you’re spending so much time worrying about your friends and family.”  
  
“Basically…keep an eye out.”  
  
“I guess.” Marinette pulled away from him and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Luka. I’m not super great at this yet.”  
  
“You’re trying your best. I can’t ask for more.”  
  
“But what if my best can’t stop Lila?”  
  
“You’re an amazing girl, Marinette. No way is that going to happen. You’ve been practicing tarot non-stop for weeks now. You have the skills and the heart. Finish this spread and you’ll see.”  
  
“All right…”  
  
Marinette swallowed and rolled her shoulders before moving to the line of four cards still face down. She reached for the two closest to Luka.  
  
“These are going to be factors that influence your situation,” she explained. She flipped the first, a hand reaching out of a cloud grasping a large, leafy stick. “Internal,” explained Marinette, then turned over the next, a happy family gesturing skyward at a rainbow made up of goblets. “And external.”  
  
“These cards have good vibes,” observed Luka.  
  
“I think they make a lot of sense too. Your internal influence is the Ace of Wands, which is almost like a creative muse. It’s all about expressing yourself with enthusiasm, courage, and confidence. It must mean your music!”  
  
Luka turned and lovingly plucked a guitar string. “It does guide me.” He gave his instrument a crooked smile before turning back to Marinette. “Hey, do you remember when I showed up at your parents’ bakery to play you your song for the first time?”  
  
Marinette couldn’t help but giggle. “How could I forget?” She had just been leaving with her arms full of macaroon boxes when Luka startled her. She flung the boxes into the air, but Luka was able to catch them all.  
  
“I was actually on the clock at the time,” the boy admitted. “I was just finishing a delivery when your song came to me in a sudden burst of inspiration. I felt like I had to share it with you right away, even though it wasn’t ready yet. My music is my passion. It makes me brave. When I play it, I feel like I can do anything.”  
  
“I can tell. Your music _is_ you, Luka. Your love of it drives you almost as much as your love for your family. And that’s what the other card means. The Ten of Cups is all about family. And peace and joy too.”  
  
“Harmony.”  
  
“Harmony! That’s what influences your decisions. In music and in life, internally and externally.”  
  
“That’s it!” Luka grabbed his guitar as he jumped to his feet. He began to strum a new tune, one that felt vaguely familiar. He stopped after a few bars. “That’s what your song was missing, Marinette! I had the melody, it was just missing your harmony. It’s a duet. Maybe when we’re done, we can practice it.”  
  
“Oh, um. Sure!” Luka had been trying to teach Marinette guitar, but her fingers didn’t seem to want to ever go in the right places. It was a fun thing for the two of them to do together though. “We’re almost done anyway.”  
  
Luka put his guitar down on the bed this time before returning to his spot as Marinette prepared to flip the last two cards.  
  
“Position 9 is either your hopes or your fears,” she explained.  
  
“Opposites,” said Luka.  
  
“Right! And Position 10 is your final outcome.”  
  
“Let’s hear it.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
The first card depicted another hand reaching out of a cloud, but it held a sword this time instead of a branch. The second card showed a wheel covered in hieroglyphics, surrounded by all manner of creatures, both mundane and fantastical. That was going to be a tricky one to decipher, so Marinette put it off for the moment and returned to the first.  
  
“Two aces now,” she observed. “Lots of power in your reading.” It made sense. Luka wielded an extremely powerful Miraculous for a reason.  
  
“How is the Ace of Swords different from the Ace of Wands I got earlier?” wondered Luka.  
  
“If the Ace of Wands is a creative force, then the Ace of Swords is a mental one. What we should be focusing on though is its tie to Justice. Both Justice and the Ace of Swords feature a sword and can mean justice.”  
  
“If Justice was about my fear of Akumatization…then maybe the Ace of Swords is my fear of being Akumatized again.”  
  
“Or maybe…it’s your hope that the next time you are targeted— _if_ you are targeted—you’ll overcome it. The Ace of Swords focuses on possibilities in the realms of intelligence, reasoning, truth, and courage. Use it to see through Hawk Moth’s deception. The justice he offers isn’t justice, but revenge rooted in anger.”  
  
“But which one is it? Does the Ace of Swords represent a hope or a fear?”  
  
“Uh…” Marinette fidgeted as she looked at the last card. “I don’t know. Usually I’d use the other card in a pair to figure it out, but you have the Wheel of Fortune.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“Fate. Chance. Destiny. Surprises. You know, something out of your control.”  
  
“Like Hawk Moth Akumatizing people.”  
  
“Not necessarily. Another thing the Wheel of Fortune represents are realizations. It’s not like you plan for them, you just suddenly see how everything connects and gain a greater perspective. This seems pretty likely given your ties to Justice, which is all about understanding connections. They both feature a sword as well.”  
  
Sure enough, the sphinx sitting on top of the wheel wielded a sword. Seeing it gave Marinette an idea.  
  
“Now that I’m thinking about it, I think the Wheel of Fortune is pointing towards a hope reading of the Ace of Swords,” she said. “Look at that sphinx. We’ve seen some before.” Marinette tapped The Chariot. “This was the best outcome, remember? Success. I think it’s good that the cards representing your best outcome and final outcome share a tie. Whatever comes out of your current issues can only be beneficial to you in the long run, no matter what it might be. It’ll be a change, yeah, but one that’s for the best.”  
  
“I can’t imagine what it could possibly be,” Luka admitted. “But I’m okay with whatever.”  
  
“Sorry for being so vague…”  
  
“No worries! I think you brought up a lot of great points, Marinette. I never really realized how much Hawk Moth bothered me and seeing how important harmony is to me helped me figure out how to perfect your song. I might not know what the future holds, but I’ve got you and my family and my music. I really can’t ask for more. I’ll just have to keep in mind what you say if Hawk Moth comes for me again. Revenge is not the same as justice. The answer to him should always be no.”  
  
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” said Marinette as she began to gather her cards back up. “Thanks for letting me practice on you."  
  
Marinette clambered up onto her feet to stretch only to stumble a little. She still wasn't used to the rocking of the boat. Luka was there in an instant to steady her, but she still felt unsettled. While she had been busy taking lessons from Madame Magda, Lila had been hard at work too. Apparently, Mr. Agreste had thrown the girl out of the house after a particularly disastrous reading, but she had somehow wormed her way back into his good graces again. Now that Marinette finally felt confident in her tarot card reading abilities, she was worried it wasn’t going to do Adrien any good at this point.  
  
“What did I tell you?” Luka said, gathering Marinette up in his arms and kissing her on her forehead. “You did great. You’ll be able to help Adrien for sure.”  
  
“Thanks,” Marinette replied. “I just hope I’m not too late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Three Card Tarot Spreads For Love And Relationships - Variant 2
> 
> https://www.biddytarot.com/easy-three-card-tarot-spreads/
> 
> Spread Used: Celtic Cross
> 
> http://www.angelpaths.com/spreads3.html


	7. The Chariot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long! I admit I've been super busy with real life stuff--my brother got married and I took some time to visit my parents. All good stuff, but that doesn't leave a lot of time for writing, especially when I've been stuck on the penultimate chapter of my Miraculous Ladybug longfic that I've been working on for several years now =P When I have writer's block in one place, it sometime makes it hard to write in general.
> 
> Anyway, back to Lila and Mr. Agreste after a nice little respite. Because Lila? She's got a plan. Because of course she does.
> 
> The shout out this time goes to...well, I gotta give it to Crisis21, my most active reader. They really go above and beyond, [making a TV Tropes page for Voyance](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/Voyance), doing grammar checks, and commenting on every single chapter. You make me smile, and now you're three for three on shout outs. Thank you ^_^

“Omigosh, Max!!!” cooed Lila as she opened a case to find an unassuming pair of glasses with thick black frames. They were hideous—Was Max an idiot? She told him she wanted them to be stylish! But she kept her thoughts to herself. If they served their purpose, it didn’t matter what they looked like. “These look amazing!”  
  
Max leaned over to pluck the glasses out of their case and unfold them. He held them out, their lenses facing away from them towards a bookcase.  
  
“Only the best for you, Lila,” he told her kindly, though Lila knew internally that he was patting himself on the back. God, he was annoying. “The user interface is extremely intuitive. All you have to do is tap them on top of either rim by the end pieces, like so.” Max demonstrated. It looked like he was using the glasses like an old-fashioned camera with a shutter button, because, well, he _was_. “And voila! They take a picture of what you see and send it straight to your cloud. You can link it to whatever social media account you intend to utilize from there.”  
  
Lila pulled out her phone, careful to flash Max her lock screen, a professionally Photoshopped picture of her and Ladybug that not even Alya could tell was a fake, before using her thumbprint to open it. Sure enough, a photo of the school library had appeared next to several pictures of her with Jagged Stone. It was actually a Jagged Stone look-alike, but it was impossible to tell from the tiny thumbnail.  
  
“Wow, this is perfect!” She put a hand to her chest and stared the boy straight into the eye. That was always the trick. Eye contact. No one ever thought you were lying to them if you looked at them. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now everyone can follow along with me on my trip without me skipping a beat!”  
  
Max beamed. He put the glasses back in their case and snapped it shut before offering it to Lila. “It was my pleasure! When do you leave?”  
  
“Early tomorrow morning. But don’t forget—!”  
  
“Right! My proverbial lips are sealed!” He mimed zipping his mouth shut. It took every ounce of Lila’s strength not to roll her eyes.  
  
She had fed Max some treacly story that she was biking from Paris to Luxembourg to raise money for children with cancer, but was doing so anonymously since it wasn’t about her— _it was about the kids_. Really, she just needed an excuse to convince Max to make her a pair of hidden camera glasses. It was the perfect lie since Lila’s mom was going to be out of town on business for a few days and Lila had to drum up _some_ reason why she was going to be missing school other than that she simply didn’t want to go. Besides, social media made faking trips easy.  
  
The study period ended and Lila slipped the glasses into her bag. She didn’t pull them out again until she was leaving school for the day, following a sullen Adrien to his waiting town car (carpooling with Adrien had been her latest gift from Mr. Agreste). She put them on. As they settled into their seats, Lila’s new look was a little hard for Adrien to miss.  
  
“Since when do you wear glasses, Lila?” he asked, his brow wrinkling. It ruined his pretty face.  
  
“Since always,” she lied. “I usually wear contacts, but I ran out.”  
  
The boy’s eyes narrowed, rightfully suspicious. “Then why weren’t you wearing them earlier today?”  
  
“Do you want to know the honest truth? I was afraid people would make fun of me. I look absolutely hideous in them, don’t you think?”  
  
“You look fine. Half the class wears glasses.”  
  
Lila raised her voice and made it waver. “I knew you wouldn’t understand! You and your perfect vision. You don’t know what it’s like!”  
  
The Gorilla in the front seat grunted and glared into the rearview mirror at Adrien. His reproach was enough to silence the boy, but he still cast Lila a distrustful glance before turning to the window and ignoring her the rest of the way to his house. Lila smiled and hummed to herself.  
  
Checkmate.

* * *

Mr. Agreste was already waiting for Lila in the sunken area in the middle of his atelier when Nathalie opened the door. This had been the norm ever since he invited her to come back after his outburst several weeks ago. He never apologized for it, but he was a bit less cryptic about what he wanted to get out of his readings now—he wanted to know about the future. And who wouldn’t with tarot cards that were always right? Lila was absolutely sure of that fact by now.  
  
Lila read the cards to the best of her abilities. No manipulations, no assumptions, just a straight reading that always left her in the dark about what was going on in Mr. Agreste’s life. Half the time, the cards didn’t even make sense. But Lila was just biding her time by this point, lulling the man into a false sense of security.  
  
“New look, Miss Rossi?” wondered Mr. Agreste with idle curiosity as she put her backpack down on the magenta seat across from him.  
  
Lila looked at the deck face-down on the glass between them, adjusting her glasses and tapping the top of the frame like Max showed her as if it were a nervous tic. She’d need pictures of the back of the cards too for her plan to succeed.  
  
“I ran out of contacts,” she told him.  
  
The man obviously didn’t care as he quickly moved on. “And what future spread have you bought with you today?”  
  
“I found the perfect one for you, Mr. Agreste! It basically allows you to have a conversation with your future self.”  
  
“Interesting…”  
  
“In order to do that though, you need to pick a couple of cards out for me first.”  
  
Smiling to herself, Lila took up the deck and began to lay the cards down face up, occasionally pausing to ‘adjust’ her glasses and take more pictures. There was a reason she had waited until now to use this spread.  
  
Only once all the cards were on the table facing Mr. Agreste did she speak again.  
  
“For Position 1, you need to choose a card that you feel best represents your current self,” she said.  
  
The words were hardly out of Lila’s mouth before Mr. Agreste was already snatching up a card and offering it to her.  
  
“Oh! The Magician…” observed Lila, looking at the yellow card bursting with vegetation. A young man in robes stood before a table that held a sword, a cup, a pentacle, and a wand. “You are powerful, and not afraid to act. You believe in yourself and are willing to put everything on the line to achieve your goals. You don’t hesitate. You are determined. Focused. Creative.”  
  
The man blinked at her with a dour look upon his face, his eyes magnified by his glasses. It seemed he had decided he was The Magician long ago. Lila always thought of him as more of The Emperor or the Knight of Swords, but to each their own she supposed.  
  
“For Position 2, you need to choose a card that you feel best represents your future self,” Lila continued.  
  
This choice took Mr. Agreste a bit longer. His hand hovered over the cards. At one point he made a move to reach for The Lovers, but he pulled back at the last second and gave his future self some further thought. In the end, he selected a card depicting a man holding a cup and giving another to a woman.  
  
“The Two of Cups?” wondered Lila. His choice came as a bit of a surprise to her. She thought for sure Mr. Agreste would select something like The Chariot or The Sun. Why willingly pick a minor arcana card if you could choose a major arcana card? Well, whatever. “So, your future self…he is ready to share his emotions with someone significant in his life. He has formed a connection and is looking to forgive and be forgiven. Does that sound right?”  
  
Mr. Agreste nodded. “Is that it?” he asked.  
  
“One more card…” Lila took a few more pictures. There. That should do it. Now to finish the reading. “Position 3 is your current situation or question or struggle. You don’t have to tell me what it is, just select your card that you feel best represents the transition from current you to future you.”  
  
This last selection took Mr. Agreste the longest by far. He rubbed his chin, jaw set as his gaze nearly burned a hole in each card. Finally, he moved slowly and deliberately to pick up The World. Like The Magician, the woman on the card held a candle burning at both ends, but she had one in her other hand as well. The connection was clear—more action, more power. That was what Mr. Agreste believed would get him from his present to his future.  
  
“You’re looking to bring something together,” Lila told him. “You want to use your abilities to accomplish your goals and won’t feel fulfilled until you do so.”  
  
“You are telling me nothing I don’t already know, Miss Rossi,” said Mr. Agreste. “Now let’s see this spread of yours.”  
  
Lila bobbed her head as she put the three cards Mr. Agreste had selected to the side. Gathering up the rest of the cards in a pile, she smoothed out the deck and gave it to Mr. Agreste to shuffle. While he waterfalled the cards with expert ease, Lila took the pre-selected cards and laid them out. The Magician on one side, the Two of Cups on the other, and The World above the space between the two. Once she got the deck back, she filled in the rest of the space with face-down cards, forming a diamond. She ended the spread by putting the ninth card down in the middle with a flourish.  
  
“The connection between you—” Lila pointed to The Magician. “—And your future self—” She pointed to the Two of Cups. “—Is now complete. Your future self has a lot to tell you. Are you ready to listen to what he has to say?”  
  
Mr. Agreste gave Lila a curt nod, so she put her hand on the card between The Magician and The World. “Position 4 will be advice from your future self on what you need to spend less time on,” she explained. “This is something that you are wasting energy doing, energy that could be better spent elsewhere.”  
  
Flipping the card revealed a stern figure, a lord or king of some type dressed in rust-colored clothing. He held a large pentacle the size of the dinner plate in the most awkward way. A second pentacle was balanced on his head, and a third and a fourth were beneath his feet. The instant Mr. Agreste saw it, he sneered, but said nothing.  
  
“This is the Four of Pentacles, as you well know,” started Lila, pushing forward despite Mr. Agreste’s adverse reaction. “It can stand for being possessive or controlling or maybe even stubborn. I think what it’s saying—what your future self is saying—is that controlling your current situation is impossible.”  
  
“But nothing is impossible for The Magician. Through his power and might, all his dreams are realized.”  
  
“Right. But The Magician is your current self, not your future self. At some point…you need to change or you’ll never become your future self.”  
  
“I need to…?” The man lowered his head. After all, he had picked out the cards himself. “I see. Yes, since nothing I do is currently working, I must change my approach to the situation. Maintaining the status quo isn’t helpful to me. Well met, Miss Rossi.”  
  
Lila smirked. _There’s a good Mr. Agreste_ , she thought. He could get angry all he wanted—it wouldn’t change his cards. When he glanced up at her though, she rearranged her face into a benign smile.  
  
“I try my best, but I’m honestly only telling you what the cards are telling me,” she said. “And since tarot is full of opposites, your future self has more to say. If he has advice on what you should spend less time on, then…”  
  
“He obviously has advice on what to spend more time on too,” the man realized, almost distantly. A moment passed and he suddenly snapped to attention, making a circular motion with his hand. “Proceed.”  
  
Lila obeyed, turning over a card that seemed to make an appearance in Mr. Agreste’s readings a lot—the young man hanging from a tree branch by his foot.  
  
“Rest again?” he wondered, annoyed, but Lila was too busy looking at The Magician card, weighing her options.  
  
“Not necessarily…” she said. “The Hanged Man can mean a lot of things. The spread, position, and/or surrounding cards help narrow it down. For example, The Hanged Man opposes The Magician, so we know that, in this case, it is specifically about suspending action. _Not_ doing something. Which is very on brand for The Hanged Man.”  
  
“So I need to spend more time on…doing nothing? Is that what you’re trying to say!? What kind of foolish nonsense is this!?”  
  
“You’d have to tell me, Mr. Agreste. If you had not chosen The Magician as your present self, the meaning of The Hanged Man would’ve been completely different. Or are you saying The Magician doesn’t represent you?”  
  
The man puckered and was silenced. It was difficult for Lila not to feel satisfied.  
  
“The world is like an ocean,” she said, since she felt like it was time for some philosophical drivel. “You can’t fight it, can’t control it. If you try, you’ll only drown. But, if you accept things the way they are and go with the flow…you’ll make it through.”  
  
“Accept?” Mr. Agreste gave a sharp bark of laughter. “If I accept my current situation, the future I have chosen for myself won’t become a reality.”  
  
“Are you saying you know more than your future self? Or perhaps that you chose the wrong card to represent your future self? Not a problem, Mr. Agreste. We can switch it out with—”  
  
“No.”  
  
Who knew all Lila had to do to manipulate Mr. Agreste was to innocently questions his own choices? He couldn’t handle being wrong, so everything he did had to be right by default. It was laughable. No wonder this man couldn’t read his own cards.  
  
“May I continue then?” Lila asked.  
  
Mr. Agreste nodded, so she snaked her hand over to the card positioned below the Four of Pentacles. “Position 6 is something your future self wants you to remember," she explained. "It’s something you need to keep in mind moving forward.”  
  
Finally, a card that almost made Mr. Agreste smile. Lila honestly didn’t think he could do so unless it was in a sardonic manner. Why it was the Ten of Cups she had no idea. With its rainbow and happy family, it seemed so absurdly sweet that Lila wanted to vomit. If any card was an illusion, it was this one.  
  
“Then my future self and I are in agreement,” the man said.  
  
“Well, the Ten of Cups does support both the Two of Cups and The World,” acknowledged Lila. There was no denying that. “If you want to get through your current struggle and become your future self, the Ten of Cups in the way to do it.”  
  
“How so?”  
  
“Well, let’s break it down. The Ten of Cups can stand for joy, peace, or family. In relation to The World, your current situation, it means joy and peace. Happiness and emotional fulfillment. That is what you’re looking for and hoping to achieve, right?”  
  
The man raised an eyebrow at her. “And if I am?” he asked, cold once again.  
  
“It’s important to remember that that is your goal. Sometimes we forget why we’re doing what we’re doing.”  
  
“I have not forgotten.”  
  
“Oh…then maybe the Ten of Cup’s true focus is in relation to the Two of Cups, your future self, where it means family—specifically the connection you have with blood relatives.”  
  
“Blood…relatives?”  
  
Mr. Agreste had been nodding along with Lila’s words until she said those ones. He suddenly looked disturbed and a shade paler than normal. Lila had no clue what his deal was. He really was all over the place today.  
  
“Yeah, so, like, people you’re related to by blood instead of marriage, like your parents or your children.”  
  
“So not…” Mr. Agreste’s narrow eyebrows pointed down towards his nose. “What is the meaning of this? This is speaking about my son, isn’t it? Remember my son? Remember Adrien? That’s what the cards are trying to tell me? But what about…?” He closed his eyes as if in deep pain, pushed up his glasses, and rubbed his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger. He heaved a burdened sigh. “Let’s move on…Am I wrong to assume that like the cards in Position 4 and 5, this card also has an opposite? What to remember and…and what to forget?”  
  
“Er…yeah. Kind of. What to let go of.”  
  
“Show me.” He snapped his fingers at her. “Show me now. It better not be…”  
  
_What?_ Lila wondered. She was curious herself though, so she picked up the card below the Hanged Man and threw it back down on the glass right-side up. Mr. Agreste instantly issued a sigh of relief. Whatever he feared the card to be, it wasn’t it.  
  
It was an elderly man on a stone throne, like an older version of the man on the Four of Pentacles right down to the rust color of his robes. That made sense. The Four of Pentacles was the minor arcana counterpart to The Emperor.  
  
“Normally The Emperor stands for fathering,” Lila explained. “But it can also stand for structure, authority, and rules. In fact, that’s what it stands for here because it reinforces the Four of Pentacles.”  
  
“Control.”  
  
“Right! Spend less time trying to control the situation. In fact, let go of control completely.”  
  
“So, then…chaos. That is what my future self is advising.” Mr. Agreste tipped his head back so the light from the windows reflected in his glasses. It was impossible to make out his eyes. “An interesting thought…Does my future self have any more words of wisdom for me?”  
  
“Encouragement, actually,” said Lila, wiggling the card symmetrically opposed to The World. “It’s difficult to achieve goals. It’s hard to overcome obstacles and get to where we want to go. So, your future self wants you to recognize your skill, to give yourself credit where credit is due.”  
  
“Let’s hear it then.”  
  
Lila flipped the card to reveal yet another familiar sight. The rich woman in the garden with her pet falcon. The Nine of Pentacles.  
  
“This is what I was doing wrong. Trying to read my own cards,” the man said, recognizing it.  
  
“In that instance, yes. But remember that cards mean different things in different spreads and positions. Your future self is complimenting you here. Maybe he’s saying your self-reliance is a good thing. Or maybe he is complimenting your taste in style and your eye for design.”  
  
“I imagine it must be my discipline.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“My discipline. I will sacrifice everything to achieve my goals.”  
  
Lila wanted to point out that discipline ran counter to giving up control like the future Mr. Agreste seemed to be advising with the Four of Pentacles and the Emperor, but if she were being completely honest…she didn’t really care. Mr. Agreste could think whatever he wanted as long as Lila got what _she_ wanted. And all she wanted at this moment was to put on a passable tarot reading performance before escaping. Only one more card stood between her and freedom, not to mention the next part of her plan. She was almost there.  
  
“That must be it!” Lila readily agreed. “Which only leaves the last card.”  
  
They both glanced down at the card in the middle of the diamond spread.  
  
“Final outcome?” guessed Mr. Agreste.  
  
“Not exactly…you’ve already chosen your final outcome.” Lila tapped the Two of Cups. “Your future self is guiding you on how to become him. Position 9 is who you have the potential to become if you don’t listen to your future self. If you spend more time on what you should spend less time on and less time on what you should spend more time on. If you let go of what you should remember and remember what you should let go.”  
  
“A bad future, so to speak,” clarified Mr. Agreste, hand to his chin as he grew thoughtful. “The Five of Wands…or perhaps the Four of Cups.”  
  
It made sense Mr. Agreste would guess cards that opposed the energy of the Two of Cups, but tarot wasn’t always so cut and dry, even with a magic deck.  
  
Lila turned the final card over to reveal a dark skeletal figure on a horse.  
  
Death.  
  
Lila didn’t say anything right away. Her mind rushed to figure out how to spin the one card no one liked to see (well, that and the Devil), but each one sounded worse than the last. Mr. Agreste would become the unknown. Transform. Lose control. He was going to be cast adrift. He would lose everything.

He was going to end.  
  
But Mr. Agreste was already speaking, his voice a whisper.  
  
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds…” he said with eerie calm.  
  
“Don’t be silly, Mr. Agreste!” Lila insisted. “I’m sure—”  
  
“You’re done for the day, Miss Rossi. Please leave my home. And send Nathalie in on your way out.”  
  
“But—”  
  
The man’s voice rose. “Do I have to repeat myself!?”  
  
Lila gathered up her backpack in her arms and speed-walked out of the room, casting a glance over her shoulder as she did so. Mr. Agreste had sunk down onto the seat, a crumpled-up ball of a man. It was terrifying in the way she couldn’t explain, like she had seen something she shouldn’t. She was glad that this was going to be one of the last times she did a reading for Mr. Agreste. This man had demons that she didn’t want to bother with. The time with Adrien was nice, but her control over the situation was tenuous at best and she didn’t like it. At any moment Mr. Agreste could go off the deep end and where would that leave her? It was best to get out while she still could, to be high and dry when everything else came crashing down.  
  
She didn’t bother letting Nathalie know that Mr. Agreste was looking for, or even telling Adrien goodbye. She simply pulled out her phone while she pushed open the door of the mansion and smiled as she scrolled through her camera roll. All the pictures of the deck were there, in high resolution too.  
  
She knew Max would be good for something.  
  
It was a beautiful afternoon in Paris. Lila dug a pair of sunglasses out of her backpack. She put them on, slung her bag over her shoulder, and strolling through the Agreste’s gate as she admired her pictures, flipping and cropping them. By the time she finished, she was halfway home amidst some cafes. She paused, tilting her head to the side. Yes, the background noise was perfect. Lies were so much more palatable when they were supported by other senses. Sight was powerful, of course, but sound was often overlooked.  
  
Lila switched over to her contact list with a lazy finger and scrolled until she found Nathaniel’s name. She gave him a call.  
  
“Lila?” he answered after a few rings, confused.  
  
“Hey desk buddy!” she said, injecting as much cheer into her voice as possible. “Remember when I told you that I’m good friends with the best manga publisher in Japan? Well, I’m at dinner with him right now.”  
  
The boy’s breath caught. “R-really!?”  
  
“I had to sneak away to call you with the good news. I was telling him all about you and he’s interested in seeing your work!”  
  
“Lila! That’s…that’s seriously amazing! Yeah, I can get my portfolio to you right now if you want!”  
  
“Oh, he’s gotta run, but if you give it to me, I can make sure to get it to him before he leaves town. In fact…I can even give you an edge.”  
  
“An edge?”  
  
“Yeah. He’s really into tarot cards right now. I was thinking if you could, like, recreate his deck, he’d be super impressed. I even got pictures of them for you.”  
  
“You’re the best, Lila! I mean that.”  
  
“Sending them now!” Lila pulled her phone away from her ear and quickly texted Nathaniel picture after picture. “Did you get them?” she asked once she was finished.  
  
Nathaniel’s voice changed as he switched to speaker, presumably so he could look at them and talk to her at the same time. “Whoa…These are so cool!”  
  
“I know, right?” she lied. “So old-school.”  
  
“Good point. Maybe I should update them then, show him what I can do…”  
  
Lila wrinkled her nose. People were such a pain sometimes. Looked like she was going to have to steer Nathaniel in the right direction herself.  
  
“Oh, but that’s what your other work is for!” she insisted. “Exact replicas of his cards would really show your dedication to your craft, don’t you think?”  
  
Lila waited with bated breath. _Three…two…one…_  
  
“Argh, I guess you’re right…” said Nathaniel. Lila could tell the boy was silently berating himself, much to her amusement, but he quickly recovered. “Thanks, Lila. You have no idea how much this means to me,” he told her.  
  
Lila smiled. “It was my pleasure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Conversations With Your Future Self Tarot Spread
> 
> http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog/conversations-with-your-future-self-tarot-spread


	8. Strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was bored at work, so, guess what? New chapter!
> 
> This is a chapter I like to call, "Adrien Being An Idiot." You will facepalm. You will yell. Even though the boy is fully aware of how dangerous Lila can be as of the episode 'Ladybug' and has some semblance of power over her, he will still make stupid decisions because he is pure of heart but dumb of mind. *Sigh* Hopefully the cute friendship/more than friendship moments he shares with Marinette balance things out a bit!
> 
> This time, the shout-out goes to...Draxynnic! Another repeat from Voyance, but it's a new story and I appreciate you following me along to the sequel! Plus, they were able to deduce exactly which card I changed in Chapter 6, so kudos to them for being very perceptive ^_^

Feet dragging with every step, Adrien made his way across the cavernous foyer to the dining room. Another day, another dinner with Lila. He relished the time the girl spent with his father now because it gave him a bit of a break from her. She was simply exhausting to be around. The moment you let your guard down, she would take advantage of you somehow. Invite herself along. Gather information that should’ve remained private. Get you to agree with her on something you normally wouldn’t. Adrien always had to be ready and wary, and it was taking a toll on him. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could pleasantly put up with her.  
  
Luckily, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Marinette had approached him the other day with news that she felt ready to give his father a reading. He was planning on broaching the topic with his father tonight after Lila left. He just needed to get through dinner.  
  
The dining room was set for three, but empty. Adrien sighed with relief. Looking over his shoulder, the door to his father’s atelier was still closed. Lila’s reading must be going longer than normal, which was a little surprising but not out of the ordinary. Usually she wanted to spend as much time with Adrien as possible, but she knew better than to give his father a short reading every single time. They would probably be out soon enough though, so Adrien took his seat at the head of the table and waited.  
  
And waited.  
  
And waited.  
  
Finally, he heard the door creak open out in the foyer and the sound of sensibly-heeled shoes crossing the polished marble floor. Adrien turned expectantly as Nathalie appeared.  
  
“I’m sorry Adrien,” she told him, a familiar sorrow in her eyes as she hugged her tablet to herself. “But your father—”  
  
“I know, I know. He won’t be joining me for dinner.” If there had been one good thing about Lila having dinner with him, it was that his father was more likely to join them as well, even if he had his nose pressed to his phone the whole time. “So, it’s just me and Lila then?” he asked her.  
  
“Not tonight. Mr. Agreste sent Lila home.”  
  
“Really!?” Adrien realized a little too late that his happiness was obvious and struggled to cover. “I mean…that’s surprising. I was really looking forward to—”  
  
“It’s okay, Adrien,” Nathalie assured him with a wane smile. “I know Lila’s presence makes you uncomfortable. But she is your father’s muse and tarot reader. We have little choice in the matter.”  
  
The word ‘we’ really stuck out to Adrien. Could it be that Nathalie didn’t like Lila either? The girl had gotten the woman in trouble, but it was always difficult to see through Nathalie's professional façade. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to ask if she would be willing to help him in his plan to oust Lila. He just had to choose his words carefully.  
  
“But there are better muses and tarot readers out there,” he pointed out.  
  
“True,” said Nathalie. “But your father is sold on Lila’s abilities.”  
  
“Did he ever compare her with anyone else? My friend Marinette is very good tarot card reader.”  
  
“Your designer friend? Hmm. Interesting…”  
  
Deep in thought, Nathalie pulled something up on her tablet, her slender fingers swiping through screens until she found the information she was looking for.  
  
“I’ll tell you what, Adrien. Your father has a meeting with Tsurugi-san at her home next month. Lila and Marinette can come over then and do a reading for me, and I will judge who is a better fit for Mr. Agreste. Does that sound agreeable?”  
  
Adrien nodded fervently. This was honestly much more than he could’ve hoped for. Nathalie was an excellent judge of character. She would be able to see that Marinette was the real deal while Lila was just a faker, no problem. And her word meant so much to his father. More than Adrien’s, anyway. If she suggested Marinette were a better choice, he would no doubt take her up on it.  
  
“Yes! Thank you so much, Nathalie!” he told her, barely able to restrain himself from giving her a hug.  
  
The light at the end of the tunnel had just gotten a whole lot brighter.

* * *

The next morning, Adrien entered Françoise Dupont with an extra spring in his step. He had to tell Marinette the good news as soon as possible!  
  
Scanning the courtyard, he failed to find her, his eyes falling on Alya and Nino instead. They were sitting on a bench, Nino’s hand casually over Alya’s shoulder as she showed him something on her phone. Adrien jogged up to them.  
  
“Whoa, dude. Where’s the fire?” Nino wondered.  
  
“Have you guys seen Marinette?” Adrien asked.  
  
“She’s presenting first today, remember?” said Alya. “She went to go set up.” The girl paused, a sly smile spreading across her face. “Why?” she wondered, a twinkle in her eye.  
  
“I’ve got something to tell her. Thanks!”  
  
Adrien booked it up the stairs two at a time, nearly running Rose over in his haste. He found Marinette putting down papers in front of everyone’s seats, counting them out carefully. Miss Bustier was busy putting the presentation order up on the board so everyone could see when they were up next.  
  
“Marinette!” Adrien called out.  
  
The girl yelped and threw her armful of papers into the air. She spun around to face him, her cheeks burning scarlet as the pages fluttered down around her. “Adrien! You me scared. I-I mean, you scared me!”  
  
Adrien felt terrible. “I’m sorry!” he said, quickly kneeling to help her gather everything back up. He leaned in close and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Listen, I’ve got some news. Nathalie has agreed to test-read you and Lila to see who’s better!”  
  
He thought his friend would be more excited by this prospect, but the color drained from her face, leaving her looking sickly and pale. “A t-test? I was preparing for Mr. Agreste, not Nathalie! What if I mess up? What if I read her so wrong that I—”  
  
Adrien reached out and grabbed Marinette’s shoulder before she could babble on for too long. She went stock still beneath his touch, her eyes darting to his hand and then back to him again.  
  
“You’re going to do great,” he assured her.  
  
This seemed to go a long way in helping Marinette gain back her usual confidence. She stood up tall as Adrien put his stack of paper on top of hers.  
  
“Thanks, Adrien,” she told him. “And thanks for setting that up. When is it?”  
  
“Next month. I think it’s a Monday at five.”  
  
“So I’ll have time to train a little bit longer. That’s a relief.” The girl paused, a dark thought suddenly crossing her mind. “You haven’t told Lila yet, have you?”  
  
“No. Why?”  
  
Her shoulders released some tension. “Okay, good.”  
  
Adrien furrowed his brow. “What do you mean, ‘good’?”  
  
“I just think we should keep this between ourselves for now. You know, so Lila doesn’t try anything.”  
  
Adrien frowned. “That’s not very fair, Marinette. C’mon. We’re better than that.”  
  
“But—”  
  
As if summoned by magic, a familiar voice rang out from the doorway. “There you two are! Nino and Alya told me I’d find you guys up here.”  
  
Adrien turned to Lila with a smile on his face and walked down to her. Marinette tried and failed to grab his arm, but he had his mind made up. They had to beat Lila fair and square. Just because she didn’t play by the rules didn’t mean they had to stoop to her level to win. Besides, knowing she had some competition might strike a little fear into her heart.  
  
“Hey, Lila,” Adrien greeted. “Why weren’t you at dinner last night?”  
  
“I’m _so_ sorry I forgot to tell you, but an old friend of mine was in town and we had dinner,” Lila gushed. “I don’t want to name any names, but they are the best manga publisher in Japan.”  
  
Adrien suspected this was a lie, since the best manga publishers in Japan were companies, not individuals. He brushed it aside though since he knew trying to refute it would do him little good, especially since him and Lila were _friends_. He hadn’t forgotten his implicit promise he made to her in exchange for Marinette coming back to school.  
  
“That’s really cool, Lila. Nathalie and I just ate together since Father was busy. I was telling her all about how Marinette’s been learning tarot and—”  
  
“ _You’ve_ been learning tarot!?” interrupted Lila, eyes gliding up to Marinette who had remained at the top of the classroom.  
  
Marinette crossed her arms. “Yeah. So?”  
  
“Oh, I just didn’t think it was your kind of thing, Marinette! You’re so…straightforward. What…” She chanced a sideways glance at Adrien, who pretended not to notice. “… _inspired_ you to take it up?”  
  
“Alya took me to a tarot reader once and I thought it was interesting.”  
  
“Oh, really?”  
  
“Yes, _really_. You can ask her if you want.”  
  
Adrien decided to step in—they were getting off track. “Nathalie was really interested. My father never tried another tarot reader before settling on you, Lila, so she thought she’d check you both out and see who’d be a better fit for my father.”  
  
“Does your father know about this?” wondered Lila.  
  
Adrien thought it best to skirt the question. “He trusts Nathalie’s judgement.”  
  
“So…he won’t be around?”  
  
That was a weird question. “Uh. No.”  
  
“And when is this? Because I’m _super_ busy these days…”  
  
“Next month—”  
  
Lila clasped her hands together and held them next to her head. “Perfect! I’m so excited! I always love a good challenge.”  
  
Silence filled the room. The only sound was the squeak of Miss Bustier’s chalk on the board. Marinette came down the steps, so she was now standing next to Adrien.  
  
“Excited?” she wondered.  
  
“Of course!” said Lila. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think I earned my position as Mr. Agreste’s personal tarot card reader unfairly.” She held out her hand to Marinette. “May the best girl win?”  
  
Marinette looked like she had just been offered a snake. Lila rearranged her face to ‘sad puppy’ as some of their classmates trickled in, her lower lip quivering.  
  
“Did I do something wrong, Marinette?” she asked, raising her voice just enough to call attention but not enough to make it seem like she was trying to make a scene. “Why won’t you shake my hand? I’m only trying to be sportsmanlike.”  
  
Grimacing, Marinette shook the girl’s hand. Both of their faces remained placid, but Adrien noticed how much both were shaking as they tried to out-grip the other. Marinette won as Lila drew back first.  
  
“I look forward to seeing how our skills compare,” said Marinette, a chill in her voice.  
  
“Likewise!” said Lila cheerfully. “I just hope you don’t get too upset if you lose. I would just _hate_ that.”  
  
She then trundled off to go speak to Nathaniel about something. As soon as Marinette was sure the girl was occupied, she turned to Adrien and gave him a beleaguered look.  
  
“What?” he wondered, even though he knew.  
  
Marinette sighed as she resumed passing out her papers. “She’s planning something. I just know it. And by the time we figure out what it is…it’ll be too late to stop her.”

* * *

A month passed and, despite Marinette’s dire prediction, it didn’t seem to Adrien that Lila was planning anything at all. Was she just that confident in her so-called abilities? Adrien didn’t know, but he liked to think that Lila wasn’t going to lie and manipulate her way out of this situation. After all, how could she?  
  
The day of reckoning came. Adrien paced his room.  
  
“Would you calm down?” asked Plagg, shoving a chunk of Camembert down his gullet. “You’re giving me anxiety.”  
  
Adrien heard the buzz of the gate echo through the house and nearly jumped out of his skin. He glanced at the clock. Five o’clock exactly. He went and hovered in the doorway of his room, looking down into the foyer as Nathalie eventually made her way across it to the front door. She took a moment to steel herself before opening it, cluing Adrien in to who exactly was on the other side.  
  
“Good evening, Miss Rossi,” said the assistant as Lila swanned into the mansion as if she owned the place. “Thank you so much for agreeing to do this.”  
  
“It’s my pleasure!” chirruped the girl. “The spiritual world is so misunderstood. I can’t blame you for thinking my connection to it is not the strongest. But what’s important is that Mr. Agreste gets the help he needs. If Marinette is better, then, by all means, Mr. Agreste should use her instead of me.” The girl paused to look around. Adrien slinked back into his bedroom so she wouldn’t spot him. Her voice still carried though. “Speaking of Marinette…where is she?”  
  
“She hasn’t arrived yet.”  
  
“Really!? I am shocked! This is super important—you’d think she’d be here by now.”  
  
Adrien's hands curled into fists. It was just like Lila to take advantage of Marinette’s chronic lateness. The problem wasn’t that Marinette didn’t think keeping appointments was important, it was that she thought everything was important. As their everyday Ladybug, she was always trying to do as much as possible for everyone—her parents, her friends, her acquaintances, her clients. Learning tarot for him was a good example. She took on too much and it was difficult for her to juggle everything.  
  
Now that Adrien thought about it though, it was a little surprising that Marinette was late. Before they left school for the day, she had confirmed the time with him and assured him that she had cleared her schedule so nothing would get in her way. Had something come up last minute? He scooped up his phone lying on the bed and opened it. He didn’t have any missed calls or texts. It wouldn’t hurt to give her a call though and see where she was.  
  
The phone rang and rang before finally going to voicemail.  
  
 _Maybe she’s already on her way over_ , Adrien thought as he hung up and texted her.  
  
Five minutes passed. Then ten. Adrien tried calling Marinette again. When he got the same result, he decided to try a different approach and called her parents’ bakery instead. Maybe she was in the middle of helping them and had simply forgotten the time with her phone upstairs.  
  
Mrs. Chang answer on the first ring. “Tom and Sabine’s Boulangerie Patisserie! How may I help you today?” she asked pleasantly.  
  
“Hi, Mrs. Chang—”  
  
He could almost see her heart-shaped face light up at the sound of his voice. “Adrien! How lovely to hear from you!”  
  
“Is Marinette there?”  
  
“I think so.” Footsteps. A door swung open. “Let me check,” she said, her voice gaining a slight echo. This was followed by muffled shouting.  
  
Eventually, Marinette picked up. “Adrien? Is everything okay?”  
  
“Marinette, why are you still at home?” Adrien wondered.  
  
“You said five, right? Did the time change? Should I come over now?”  
  
“It’s after five.”  
  
“What!? No, it’s not. It’s four—” There was movement and Marinette’s voice grew distant. “Mom? What time is it?”  
  
“It’s a little after five, sweetie.”  
  
There was an awkward pause, like a record scratch. “Did…did Lila Rossi stop by today?” Marinette wondered, her voice stunted.  
  
“Oh! You found the gift she left you? What was it?”  
  
“What are you talking about? What gift?”  
  
“She came by around noon. She felt so terrible about accidentally getting you expelled, but felt like she couldn’t face you in person, so she wanted to leave an apology gift for you in your room.”  
  
“You let her go upstairs!?”  
  
“Well…yes. You know how busy it gets around here during the lunch hour. I didn’t think there was any harm in—”  
  
“She changed the clocks!” Marinette told Adrien. She was running back up the steps now, he could hear it. “She probably stole my phone too since it’s been missing since school.”  
  
“Marinette…” Adrien choked on her name apologetically.  
  
“I’m going to grab my stuff. I’ll be there as soon as I can!” she said and hung up.  
  
Adrien sighed, his whole body drooping.  
  
“Shoulda listened,” said Plagg.  
  
Adrien tossed a dirty glare at his Kwami, then rushed out of the room. Plagg fumbled and dropped his cheese as he flew to catch up, concealing himself on Adrien as he took the stairs two at a time.  
  
“Adrien, perfect timing,” said Nathalie, turning to him as he arrived. “I was just about to come get you. Is your friend Marinette planning on joining us sometime today?”  
  
“Yes! I just got off the phone with her and she’s on her way.” He tried to catch Lila’s eye as he said this, but she paid him no mind.  
  
Nathalie turned back to Lila. “Then we’ll do as you suggested.”  
  
“What’s that?” wondered Adrien.  
  
“We only have a limited amount of time, so while you wait for Marinette, I’ll start my reading with Lila.”  
  
“It’s only fair since I was here on time,” Lila added with just a hint of a self-satisfied smirk.  
  
“But…”  
  
“Something wrong, Adrien?” wondered Nathalie.  
  
What was he supposed to say? He had no proof that Lila changed Marinette’s clocks or stole her phone. Even if he did, Lila would lie her way out like she always did. _I was just so worried about not going first! To follow Marinette up—I don’t think I could do it! I know it was wrong, but my nerves just got the better of me. Surely you understand_.  
  
“No,” he said sullenly.  
  
“Then right this way, Miss Rossi,” said Nathalie, leading the way to his father’s atelier. Lila followed, glancing back at Adrien with an amused quirk of an eyebrow before slipping inside and closing the door behind her.  
  
Plagg floated out of his hiding place. “So, she did all that work just to go first? Seems kind of petty if you ask me.”  
  
“You think there’s more to her plan?” wondered Adrien as he went over to the window to watch for Marinette.  
  
“I’m just staying she stinks. And I don’t mean she smells like cheese.”  
  
It was nerve-wracking, waiting for Marinette, but as soon as Adrien saw her skidding to a halt in front of the gate, a tiny weight lifted from his shoulders. If anyone knew what to do in this situation, it would be her. He went to let her in before she even rang the bell. The next thing he knew, she was bursting through the front doors full tilt, hair down and looking like an absolute mess.

“Sorry I’m—!” She realized Adrien was the only one standing there. “…late…”  
  
“Nathalie when ahead and started Lila’s reading,” he explained, nodding towards the closed door of the atelier.  
  
Her eyes grew round, her pupils shrinking into pinpricks. “They already started!?” she asked in a small voice. She returned to herself a bit. “Who knows what Lila is telling Nathalie? She’s no doubt buttering her up good and I know butter! I’m a baker’s daughter!”  
  
“Nathalie won’t fall for Lila’s tricks. Not after the first time.”  
  
“I told you! I told you she was up to something, but, no, you wouldn’t listen. I think it’s great that you believe the best of everyone, even someone like Chloé, but Lila doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. She's like a supervillain who doesn't even need a costume! But you still went ahead and told her what we were doing. You even gave her a month to prepare! She had all the time she needed!”  
  
It took Adrien a moment to realize that Marinette was mad at him, which came as a complete surprise. She hadn’t been mad at him since the gum incident when they first met, and that all ended up being a misunderstanding. “Okay, so she made you late,” he agreed. “But it’s not like you missed your chance to give Nathalie a reading! Everything is going to be okay. You can do this, Marinette! And I’m here to support you every step of the way. I promise.”  
  
His words went a long way to calming her down. She finally caught her breath from her mad dash from her house to his. They sat down in the chairs to the left of the staircase to wait. They talked a little, but Marinette seemed too nervous to say much. Eventually, the door to the atelier opened and Nathalie escorted Lila out. Lila’s eyes fell on Marinette and she smiled like a predator would smile at their prey.  
  
“Oh, good! You made it,” she said. She put a hand over her heart. “I was so worried.”  
  
Marinette stood up, brushed the back of her dress off, and said nothing.  
  
“Please wait here, Miss Rossi,” said Nathalie. “Marinette?” She jerked her head in the direction of the open door.  
  
“Good luck!” said Lila as Marinette passed.  
  
“Wait!” said Adrien, getting up and following. Not only did he not want to be left alone with Lila, but a promise was a promise. “Can I sit in on Marinette’s reading?”  
  
This gave Nathalie pause, but she eventually bowed her head in acquiescence. They followed her into the atelier and Adrien was glad for the excuse to shut a door in Lila’s face.  
  
A deck of tarot cards was already waiting for them on the glass between the sunken magenta seating. Marinette noticed this too and they exchanged glances. Looked like she was going to have to use a deck that wasn’t her own.  
  
Nathalie led the way down the steps, and they took their positions—Nathalie on one side and Marinette and Adrien on the other. Looking at the back of the deck, Adrien was overcome with a strange sense of déjà vu.  
  
“The test is simple,” explained Nathalie. “You will perform a basic past/present/future three card linear spread on me using these cards.” She pushed them forward. “Do you understand?”  
  
Marinette snatched up the cards and fanned them out. A strangled gasp escaped Adrien’s throat as it suddenly dawned on him that he had seen this deck before. There was no mistaking the strange and spindly pictures—this was Madame Magda’s stolen deck! But…how? Hawk Moth took it.  
  
“Where did you get this!?” Marinette demanded, voicing Adrien’s thoughts.  
  
Nathalie blinked at Marinette dolefully. “I’m sorry?”  
  
“I mean…excuse me, but these cards look very old, ma’am. Rare, even. I was just curious.”  
  
“They were Mrs. Agreste’s.”  
  
Adrien stared at Nathalie. That wasn’t true, was it? But what reason did she have to lie?  
  
“Are you sure?” he asked her.  
  
The woman fixed him with a piercing yet quizzical gaze. “Yes. A family heirloom. Why?”  
  
What was he supposed to say? _I think these are the cards Hawk Moth stole from Madame Magda?_ If that were true, then how did they end up here? Did Hawk Moth give them to Nathalie? Was his father Hawk Moth??? Ladybug had suspected him a while ago, but they dismissed him as a suspect after he got Akumatized. Was it possible he Akumatized himself somehow? Or maybe Nathalie was telling the truth. Perhaps there were two matching decks, just like there were two Graham de Vanily rings. He never did ask Madame Magda where she got her cards from or if they were one-of-a-kind.  
  
Adrien realized that Nathalie was expecting an answer to her question. “I-I don’t recognize them,” he admitted.  
  
“There’s a lot you probably don’t know about your mother, but far be it from me to tell you. It’s not my place.”  
  
“Right…”  
  
“Uh.” Marinette colored a little. Adrien had to imagine she felt a little awkward just standing there. She offered the cards to Nathalie. “You need to shuffle them, ma’am.”  
  
Nathalie nodded in approval and Adrien realized she was testing Marinette’s tarot knowhow. The woman did as she was instructed and handed them back. With shaking hands, Marinette took three cards off the top and laid them out in a horizontal line before moving the deck off to the side. _She must recognize them too_ , Adrien realized.  
  
“The first card will be your past,” said Marinette.  
  
She flipped it over smoothly, revealing a card familiar to Adrien. It was a jester with a tall, funny hat, holding a pentacle in each hand. They were tied together by an infinity symbol. To him, it represented what Ladybug liked about him—his fun, easy-going nature. But what could it possibly mean for Nathalie’s past?  
  
“This is the Two of Pentacles,” Marinette explained. “It makes a lot of sense in light of your work as Mr. Agreste’s assistant. You juggle the demands of your job as easily as the man on the card juggles his pentacles. You’re used to handling challenges and don’t let anything throw you. The Two of Pentacles can also mean fun, so I assume you get a lot of enjoyment out of your job too.”  
  
Nathalie seemed less than impressed. “I see…but how does it specifically represent my past?”  
  
“Oh. Uh…have you been having trouble with your work lately? Maybe it’s not as easy for you anymore? The challenges that you used to relish—are they not as fun as they used to be?”  
  
“I’m fine. I still complete all my tasks in a timely manner, and I still enjoy my work.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
It seemed the reading was off to a bad start, but Adrien knew enough about tarot to think of a way to help.  
  
“Hey, Marinette, isn’t it true that sometimes when a card is hard to figure out, the others in the spread can help narrow down the meaning?”  
  
She offered a grateful smile. “Yeah!” She turned back to Nathalie. “There are opposing and reinforcing cards. Maybe the next one can shed some light on the Two of Pentacles. After all, the past and present are inextricably linked.”  
  
Unfortunately, just by looking at Marinette’s face, Adrien could tell the next card had nothing to do with the Two of Pentacles, other than it also being a pentacle. Two men—one injured and the other destitute—made their way through a snowstorm. Above them glimmered a stained-glass window, depicting a tree of plenty made up of five gold circles. Unlike the previous card though, this one elicited a reaction from Nathalie. She pulled back, eyes narrowing as she considered it with suspicion.  
  
“The Five of Pentacles,” explained Marinette. “It can stand for sickness, hardship, or feeling alone. It doesn’t oppose the Two of Pentacles per say, but they are very different. It might explain why the Two of Pentacles is in your past. Have you been feeling run down or tired lately? Maybe even sick?”  
  
“Yeah, what about that cough you’ve been having?” suggested Adrien.  
  
“It seems to me that the Two of Pentacles better represents my presents and the Five of Pentacles my past,” Nathalie said rather coldly. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed, Adrien, but I’ve been feeling much better as of late. What was causing my cough has been fixed. In fact, I’ve never felt better.”  
  
Now that Adrien thought about it, it was true. Nathalie was the picture of health. The bags under her eyes were the smallest Adrien had ever seen them.  
  
“Then, um…maybe there was a mistake,” decided Marinette. She slid the two cards around on the glass, switching their places. She was trying to keep calm, but Adrien sensed she was freaking out on the inside. This reading wasn’t going well at all. “There you go. Now it makes more sense.”  
  
Nathalie raised an eyebrow. "Is that allowed?" she wondered.  
  
“Why don't we move on to the last card?" said Marinette, too loud and too fast as she ignored the question. “This is your future." She turned it over. “The Six of Cups.”  
  
Now this was a card Adrien had never seen before. There were two children, presumably a brother and sister, standing in what looked to be a town square. The brother, who was the older of the two, was offering his little sister one of the many flower-filled cups that lined the area.  
  
“The Six of Cups stands for goodwill, innocence, and childhood,” Marinette explained, followed by a long, awkward pause. “Do any of those jump out at you?” she asked weakly.  
  
Nathalie shook her head.  
  
“Are you sure…?”  
  
Nathalie gave Marinette a deadpan look and the girl squeezed her eyes shut. Only Adrien heard her when she spoke under her breath. “Take it piece by piece...”

"Marinette?" prompted Nathalie after a moment.

“Goodwill…" said the girl, thoughtful. "Maybe you’ll receive a raise for all your hard work?”  
  
“I actually received a raise a few weeks ago.”  
  
“Oh. Um. Innocence then. That can be taken a few ways. Like maybe you’ll be taken to court for some reason and be found innocent. Or maybe you’re innocent as in naïve, like there’s some secret you don’t know anything about that will affect your life or you have no idea that you’ve gotten yourself caught up in something bad—”  
  
Air issued from Nathalie nostrils in an approximation of a laugh. Marinette grew frantic.  
  
“Okay, so maybe not that either. Then that means…maybe—maybe it’s childhood. Maybe it’s…you’re having a baby!”  
  
“Thank you, Marinette. You can end the reading now.”  
  
“What!? But—”  
  
“I’m sorry, but you’re done.”  
  
Marinette hung her head as Adrien shook his. It looked like these weren’t Madame Magda’s cards after all. It was pretty clear there was no magic in them. They were random. Marinette had tried her best, but Lila probably drew better cards, either by luck or her own machinations, that made Nathalie a bit more forthcoming.  
  
“Nathalie, can I speak to you really quick?” asked Adrien.  
  
Nathalie offered him a faint smile, soft but sad. “Of course.” She turned. “Marinette, could you give us the room, please? We’ll be right out.”  
  
Marinette didn’t say anything as she trudged up the stairs and out of the room. Adrien watched her go, his heart as heavy as her steps. The door opened and shut.  
  
“Nathalie, I know that didn’t go so well, but Marinette knows her stuff," he insisted. "Trust me!”  
  
“I’m sorry, Adrien,” said the woman as she gathered up the cards. “Lila’s a better reader, even if Marinette is a better person. Unfortunately, it looks like your father will be continuing his readings with Lila for now.”  
  
“What did she tell you?”  
  
Nathalie froze for a moment, but quickly recovered, adjusting her glasses. “Excuse me?”  
  
“What did Lila tell you in your reading?”  
  
“…That’s confidential, Adrien.”  
  
She marched towards the stairs, Adrien matching her step for step on the other side.  
  
“Please, Nathalie. Could you tell me?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“But—”  
  
“Please don’t ask me again, Adrien.”  
  
She crossed in front of him without even giving him a second look and threw open the door a bit harder than necessary.  
  
“Lila is the winner,” she announced to the girls in the foyer. Adrien slipped around her. The look on Marinette’s face told him that she wasn’t surprised by her defeat. Lila, for her part, jumped up from her seat and clasped her hands together.  
  
“Thank you so much for putting your faith in me, Nathalie,” she said. “I promise I won’t let you or Mr. Agreste down.” She looked to Marinette. “I’m sure you tried your best.”  
  
Marinette didn’t respond.  
  
“Well, I’ll be on my way,” Lila decided. “I’ve got a plane to Achuu to catch. _Ciao!_ ” She blew them all kisses and left.  
  
Nathalie glanced at her watch. “Mr. Agreste should be arriving soon. Adrien, why don’t you walk your friend out?”  
  
She tried to encourage him with a smile, but it faltered. Comfort was not her strong suit. She headed off in the direction of her office.  
  
“Right…” said Adrien to himself, going right up to Marinette as she stared forlornly at the floor. He squatted in front of her and looked up at her face. Her eyes were glossy.  
  
“I’m so sorry, Adrien,” she mumbled. “I tried so hard—”  
  
“I know. I know,” he said softly. “You have nothing to apologize for. You tried your best. I really can’t ask for more.”  
  
She sniffled. “You mean that?”  
  
“You put in all this time and effort. Really, I should be the one apologizing to you.” He grabbed her hands and stood, pulling her up. “Thank you, Marinette.”  
  
“For what?” she wondered, wiping her hair out of her face so it wouldn’t stick to her cheeks.  
  
“For being my friend. No one else would’ve done all this for me.” He sighed wistfully. “You really are our everyday Ladybug.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Three Card Linear Spread - Past, Present, Future
> 
> https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/learn-tarot-with-labyrinthos-academy/3-card-tarot-spreads-simple-tarot-spreads-organized-by-layout


	9. The Hermit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh. This chapter was a STRUGGLE to write, even though it's a bit shorter than most. I think I've said it before, but getting into Lila's head? Nauseating. I know there is a lot of meta out there explaining her actions, but she's got to have Antisocial Personality Disorder. I mean, she hasn't shown herself capable of caring about anyone other than herself, and I don't think that is ever going to change, especially after writing this chapter.
> 
> I think this also marks the first time a chapter had focused on someone giving themselves a reading with no one else present. Makes sense for The Hermit chapter though, doesn't it? 
> 
> This time the shout out goes to...Calvin McCormick! I always love a new commentor and he also tried his hand at reading the cards himself. I always think its cool when a reader does that. It's like...my writing?? Has real world effects??? What???? ^_^ Life is pretty amazing.

Lila owned many masks.  
  
No, not the chintzy ones hanging on her walls that her mom brought back from her trips as consolation prizes. These masks were the ones that looked like her own face, the ones she wore every day. The loving daughter. The hapless student. The jetsetter. The volunteer. The victim. But her newest one, the tarot card reader, had to be her greatest creation yet. Who knew it would be so instrumental in garnering her such power?  
  
And, now, that power was all hers.  
  
Tapping her foot, Lila waited for the elevator in the lobby of her apartment building, but eventually abandoned the task when it took too long. She raced up the stairwell instead, the pounding of her feet echoing in the narrow space. She arrived on her floor and made a beeline for her apartment. Honestly, the Italian government could do better. They had stayed in much nicer places in the past. Just another reason to hate living in France, she guessed.  
  
Lila searched her bag for her keys, but when she leaned against the handle, she felt it give. Did she forget to lock the door when she left? It didn’t matter. She threw it open, eyes locked on her bedroom door painted pastel pink and purple at the end of the hall. As she headed towards it though, a voice called out to her and she winced.  
  
“My bella! What are you doing home so early? I thought you were having dinner at your boyfriend’s house.”  
  
Caught, Lila turned to face her mom, who was sitting at the kitchen table, digging into a microwaved meal. Lila put on her loving daughter mask.  
  
“Mom! What a wonderful surprise! What’re you doing here?” she asked  
  
“My meeting got canceled, but this is perfect! We can eat dinner together!” She jumped up and opened the freezer. “What would you like? I got some seafood fondue—”  
  
Lila groaned—she was sick and tired of seafood fondue—but when her mom gave her a reproachful look, she held a hand to her stomach. “I don’t feel so well,” she lied. “That’s why I came home from my boyfriend Adrien’s house. I’m going to go rest.”  
  
Ashamed, her mom’s eyes softened with pity and just a hint of disappointment.  
  
“Oh. Of-of course,” she said, closing the freezer with some resignation, but Lila didn’t care as she turned and shuffled off to her room. If her mom didn’t want to eat alone, then maybe she shouldn’t work all the time.  
  
Once Lila was safely within the confines of her bedroom, she locked the door and closed the blinds, plunging the room into semi-darkness. Kicking blankets and dirty clothes and old shopping bags out of the way, she made a space for herself on the rug as she grabbed her white desk lamp. Settling down, she placed the lamp on the floor just so and flipped the switch. Satisfied with the pool of light it provided, she reached into her bag and pulled out Mr. Agreste’s tarot deck.  
  
It hadn’t been easy. Nathaniel broke down several times during the process of creating a copy for her, constantly second-guessing himself and falling behind on his timeline. Lila had to assure him constantly, but also spur him to finish. In the end, the cards turned out perfectly. It would take a carbon dating analysis to tell the two decks apart.  
  
Nathalie, in comparison, was a cakewalk. She had been so distracted by Lila’s reading that she didn’t even notice when Lila switched the real deck out for the fake.  
  
Lila cackled. Poor, poor Marinette. The cards had been stacked against her from the start—literally! No matter how good of a reader she was, her cards were random, while Lila’s cards were right. She was never going to win.  
  
Still, it was all so unbelievable. Not that her plan had gone off without a hitch—of course it had, she had planned it—but that the cards in her hand were magic. She was still a bit skeptical. There was a very simple way to confirm their power though. All she had to do was give herself a reading.  
  
It seemed a Celtic Cross was in order.  
  
Shuffling the cards, Lila laid out the ten-card spread carefully. First the cross (One, two on top, now the circle, three, four, five, six…), and then the staff (one on top of the other, seven, eight, nine, ten). Putting the deck aside, Lila cracked her knuckles and reached for the first two cards in the center of the cross. She flipped them over and was immediately impressed, if not a little annoyed. She didn’t like to be reminded of the issues she was currently facing, but there they were.  
  
Her central issue, naturally, was represented by the Three of Swords. The dark, stormy rainclouds. The three silver swords stabbing the garishly red heart…Lila nodded. She was the victim here, really. Heartbreak, loneliness, betrayal—She knew what this was about. This was about her mom uprooting her life, forcing her to start all over again in a strange place. Making friends was never easy, but Lila had picked up some tricks over the years. Who was a friend if not someone who made you feel better? It didn’t matter if the words that elicited that feeling were true or not, people loved that feeling and flocked to her to get it. It was always nice to be needed. It ensured that she would never be alone.  
  
But wait…was she lonely anymore? She was now one of the most popular kids at school, not to mention all the extra time she got to spend with Adrien, so she guessed not. But what else could the Three of Swords possibly mean if not that?  
  
Lila supposed there was a chance this card could be outward facing, that it represented her attempt to inflict heartbreak, loneliness, and betrayal on someone else.  
  
Lila gritted her teeth.  
  
Of course.  
  
_Marinette._  
  
Lila tried to steal Adrien from Marinette and failed. She tried to turn all of Marinette's friends against her and failed. Lila even tried to expel Marinette from school, and that failed too. The girl was unbelievably lucky. Despite Lila’s best machinations, Marinette was never down and out for long. People actually _believed_ in the goody two-shoes. It was disgusting.  
  
The card in Position 2 all but confirmed this reading of the Three of Swords. The Four of Pentacles, with its mighty ruler holding on tightly to his golden treasure, wanted to possess, wanted to control. Lila knew the feeling well. Marinette was dangerous and threatened to destroy everything Lila had worked so hard to build. She was like an architect and the things she said were a beautiful stone tower. If Marinette were successful in removing one of the building blocks at the bottom though by proving Lila was a liar, the whole thing would come tumbling down. Lila could _not_ let that happen.  
  
Still, with Marinette around, Lila’s control of her situation was tenuous at best. The girl had already turned Adrien against her. Who was next? Alya? Nino? Lila had to keep her tower from crumbling, or that loneliness she was trying to inflict on Marinette would end up deflected on to her. She didn’t want to go through that again.  
  
_Again._  
  
Lila eyed the next card in Position 3. It was the distant past and she knew before she even flipped it that it would be the family in the boat. The Six of Swords.  
  
_Traveling_ , thought Lila to herself. Changing locations. Moving from one place to another. Being uprooted. It was pretty clear the deck knew all about Lila’s mom accepting a job at the embassy and how it changed Lila’s whole life. Feeling blue was another association with the Six of Swords. Lila got along in every new place she went, but she wasn’t ever happy. There was like this dull listlessness inside of her that only went away when all eyes were on her, when she was showered with compassion, adoration, and praise. She needed it. Craved it. It was like food to her and she was on an empty stomach. If she didn’t get anything, she would starve.  
  
Oh, but she had forgotten Position 3’s sister card in Position 5—the best outcome. Lila was sick of all these negative cards. She wanted to see what would happen if everything went according to her plan. If she got rid of Marinette. If Adrien fell back in line. If she got all the fame and wealth and power and adoration she desired. What card could it be? The Chariot? The Sun? Nothing less than a major arcana amidst the trivialities of the minor arcana would do.  
  
Lila was a little disappointed, though not unhappy, when she turned over the Six of Wands. As her eyes traced the figure of a proud and victorious man riding on a horse, leading his loyal followers, she felt the glow of satisfaction well up from inside of her. The card recognized how hard she had been working. Success, recognition, acclaim, honor, rewards—they were all within reach. It was no less than what she deserved. But how was she going to get there? There were still so many obstacles in her way. Marinette, her lack of total control, the fear that her mom might get reassigned and all her hard work building her tower would come to nothing…  
  
She brushed those thoughts from her mind. It wouldn’t do her any good to dwell on them when there were still so many cards left in her spread. She turned her attention to Position 4. This would represent her recent past, something that had happened not too long ago. Whatever it was would tie into Position 6, her future.  
  
Flipping them at the same time, Lila was finally— _finally_ —rewarded with a card from the major arcana. She had to temporarily ignore it though in favor of the other, a Seven of Wands. A young man with a grim look of determination on his face was fending off incoming sticks with a stick of his own. It was a card that often stood for taking a stand, for defending yourself, for attacking others. It was about battles.  
  
The first thought that jumped into Lila’s mind was, of course, her confrontation with Marinette. The girl had thrown a napkin at her for God’s sake, then stormed off to the girl’s bathroom. Lila followed. She had dealt with people who were too intelligent to fall for her lies before. To keep those people in line, Lila incentivized them instead. She’d get them what they wanted, and, in exchange, they would turn a blind eye to what she was doing. It was a win-win. After all, if they were smart enough to see through her lies, then they were smart enough to realize how dangerous she could be to them if her generous offer was rejected.  
  
Unfortunately, Marinette was a rare combination of intelligence _and_ integrity. She surprisingly refused Lila’s offer of friendship and helping her get with Adrien.  
  
_You and I will only be friends the day you stop lying, Lila!_  
  
Coercion was _such_ an ugly word, but the moment Marinette insinuated that she wanted to prove that Lila was lying had left Lia with no other choice.  
  
_I wouldn’t let her destroy me_ , thought Lila.  
  
But in taking up her stance against Marinette, Lila had set into motion an energy of resistance. She attacked Marinette by trying to get her expelled and Marinette defended herself, causing Adrien to take up Marinette’s cause and threaten Lila in return. That was why the Seven of Wands stood for aggression and defiance, even though they seemed like opposites—Lila had to do both. She had to attack and defend herself. Marinette and Adrien threatening her position as Mr. Agreste’s tarot card reader was another example. They had been the ones to attack first this time. Luckily, Lila was able to defend her herself by thinking five steps ahead, but what about next time?  
  
_The future_ , she suddenly realized, turning back to the other card. It was one that Mr. Agreste so loved but was failing to be. The Magician.  
  
Lila had never given the card much thought before. The man in it looked rather silly with his 80s style sweatband, holding up what looked to be a candle burning at both ends. He was the type who was ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work. Lila didn’t work hard if she could help it. Why bother doing something when she could get someone else to do it for her? Sometimes you did have to put a little elbow grease in on the front end to reap the rewards later though. Learning tarot was a good example. So, what did the Magician, who had all the suits of tarot laid out in the table in front of him, have to tell her?  
  
Take action. Do what needs to be done to keep control. You have real potential inside of you. Use your talent for lying and apply it to produce magical results.  
  
_Hmmm, interesting_ , thought Lila. She wondered what action she had to take in her future. Whatever it was, it had to be a conscious action in a situation she was already familiar with. She had to know what she was doing and why.  
  
The word ‘magical’ was really sticking out to her. She thought of all the times when she was fully focused on her goal, when she had the power to create miracles.  
  
Could The Magician be referring to Akuamtization? As Volpina, Lila had been able to make her wildest dreams come true. Not the illusions, of course, but being a universally beloved superhero.  
  
Then Ladybug had to go and ruin everything.  
  
Hmmm...There was a thought. Lila had been so focused on Marinette that she had completely forgotten about her run-in with Ladybug. Could the Seven of Wands actually stand for that? Ladybug had attacked her right out of the gate. They had never even met, yet Ladybug felt the need to appear at the worst possible time and expose her as a liar to Adrien. He had been eating out of the palm of her hand before that. Lila had never felt so powerless. If it hadn’t been for Hawk Moth’s intervention, she would’ve never been able to defend herself. It was two against one though, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were able to defeat her.  
  
She counter attacked on Heroes’ Day. It had all become too much by that point. Ladybug’s face was plastered everywhere. Why did she get all the attention? All the love and adoration? The superheroine hoarded it so there was none left for anyone else. It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t Lila’s fault she didn’t have superpowers. Luckily, her anger and rage attracted an Akuma and she realized she did have _some_ power. Depending on Hawk Moth was a little bothersome though. Where was he when that horned freak was chasing her down with a sword? The Magician possessed true power and was beholden to no one, so maybe it wasn’t another Akumatization that was in her future. It sure seemed to fit though.  
  
With a sigh, Lila moved on. All this spread was doing was reminding her of her frustrations. She had to admit though, that was her situation. The cross had painted a pretty clear picture. What about the staff though? If the cross represented her life, then the staff represented her. How did everything fit together? None of the cards that had been revealed so far reinforced or opposed one another. It was a little disheartening.  
  
Lila turned over the cards in Position 7 and 8. Position 7 depicted a man sneaking off with some stolen swords—the Seven of Swords. Lila turned her nose up at it. The Seven of Swords represented internal factors, huh? It wasn’t as if it wasn’t accurate, it’s just that it was a distasteful way of explaining who she was. Did she shirk away from responsibility? Always look for the easy way out? Hide the truth? Yes. But she was just being smart. Cunning was a better way to describe it, not running away. Lila was no coward. That was Ladybug.  
  
And the lone wolf aspect of the card…Lila didn’t know how she felt about it. While it was true she didn’t need anyone—the very idea of being dependent on anyone other than herself sounded pathetic—she wanted to be wanted. So that was a bit confusing.  
  
It was the idea that the card meant hidden dishonor though that irked Lila the most. How was what she was doing dishonorable? Like she told Marinette, it wasn’t lying per say. It was telling people what they wanted to hear. Sure, to keep it up, she needed to control without appearing to, to maneuver behind the scenes. So sue her. Marinette saw that as two-faced, but the joke was on her. Lila had many faces, many masks, each one tailored to suit the situation. Was that so wrong? She was simply better prepared than others to handle all sorts of circumstances.  
  
Like the other card, the King of Wands. She would be lying if she said she didn’t see herself in such a light. Like the King of Wands, she was creative in how she presented herself. She recalled how she made her classmates believe she was visiting the Kingdom of Achu with a good backdrop and clever lighting. On Heroes’ Day, she told them all about how she was working to reduce world pollution. How inspirational was that!? It was exactly what the class wanted to hear, and they adored her for it. Marinette tried to call her out for lying, of course, but Lila was careful. She always phrased her words in such away that she had a little wiggle room in case someone tried to confront her.  
  
Lila frowned though. The problem was, the King of Wands wasn’t an internal influence at all but an external one, so it couldn’t stand for her. Which meant it probably stood for…  
  
She seethed.  
  
Of course.  
  
_Ladybug.  
  
_A lot of people associated the King of Wands with Ladybug, unfortunately, but Lila guessed it made sense. The two of them were very similar in a lot of way. They were both inventive in how they dealt with difficult situations. They had both amassed followings and were the focus of a lot of attention. They had everyone’s—well, _almost_ everyone’s—respect and willing compliance. The difference, of course, was that Ladybug refused to benefit, acting as if she were _so_ much better than everyone else. She wouldn’t be so high and mighty without her Miraculous, that was for sure. Lila understood Hawk Moth’s desire to part one from the other all too well.  
  
Forget Marinette. She was small time. Lila was beginning to realize that it was Ladybug who was her true trial. It was Ladybug who sent Lila down her current path. Lila would never achieve the acclaim of the Six of Wands as long as Ladybug was around, soaking up all the praise. Something had to be done about her. She had to be, as Lila had once told Hawk Moth, _destroyed_.  
  
Lila crawled around on the floor searching for a tarot deck. She eventually found one under her bed. Searching through it, she pulled the King of Wands and pinned it to her corkboard. Right through his eye. Lila planned to throw some darts at it later.  
  
Satisfied, she returned to her spread. There were only two cards left, so she flipped them to finish off the Celtic Cross. One showed a blindfolded and bound woman in an orange dress, surrounded by swords point down in the earth. They stood almost as tall as she did. This was the Eight of Swords. The other showed a man standing on the top of a battlement. In his hand he held a small globe. This was the Two of Wands.  
  
It was disappointing to see more minor arcana, but as Lila took a deeper look at the Eight of Swords, which could represent a hope or a fear, she spotted something new. It was obvious it represented a fear. Restriction, confusion, and powerlessness were never anybody’s hope. What was interesting though was that this was the first card in the entire spread that connected with another. The Eight of Swords was in clear opposition to The Magician.  
  
_So my future will combat my fear_ , realized Lila.  
  
This also meant her greatest fear was specifically feeling confused, uncertain, and powerless. Hadn’t she just been thinking these things? She had such little control over Ladybug. How could she go about exerting her authority when she had to depend on Hawk Moth for her power? No wonder the Seven of Swords was her card. She was a lone wolf. Without him though, she couldn’t stand toe-to-toe against the superheroine and the idiotic cat boy, so what was she supposed to do?  
  
The last card, the Two of Wands, gave her comfort. This was the final outcoming. Not only did the card reinforce The Magician by highlighting her personal power and the potential she had to wield a strong force, but it also opposed the fear of the Eight of Swords! That powerlessness, that fear of action. Lila was going to have the opportunity in the future to make a grab for power, and every fear she had would be washed away.  
  
Lila leaned back and looked over the entire spread, searching for more insight now that all the cards had been revealed. One thing she noticed was that there was not a single cup in sight.  
  
_Good_ , she thought. Cups were the weakest suit by far. All these emotions clouding up a reading—what good were they?  
  
The second thing she noticed were the wand cards. Ladybug was the King of Wands. She held creative power, confident power. The Seven of Wands was hers. But Lila could potentially wield the Six of Wands and was destined the wield the Two of Wands. That power that Ladybug had…it could be hers for the taking! Then she would be the only King of Wands who mattered.  
  
And then there was The Magician. It stuck out like a sore thumb, the only card from the major arcana in the entire spread. Not only did it negate her fear and support her final outcome, but none of the other cards tied together except the last two, and they _both_ tied to The Magician. Lila was still a little fuzzy on what The Magician could possibly mean though. She felt like she almost understood it, but needed a little help, a little…guidance…  
  
“Oh, duh!” she said aloud. She was in possession of a deck of cards that were always right. All she had to do was ask them. So, she gathered them all up except for The Magician and gave them a good shuffle, focusing on her questions with all her might.  
  
_What…or who…is The Magician?_  
  
Lila had only meant to flip over the top card, but they were sticky and old and she accidentally flipped two: The King of Swords and the Queen of Swords. Lila slipped them back in the deck and shuffled again.  
  
_What or who is The Magician?  
  
_Pulling from the top, Lila revealed…The King of Swords again.  
  
If Lila were being completely honest, the King of Swords was everything she hated, all holier-than-thou. He was intelligent, analytical, articulate, just, and ethical. It made no sense without context though, so Lila drew a second card.  
  
Lila slammed a fist down so hard she could feel the floorboards beneath her rug. “The Queen of Swords!?” she hissed.  
  
It was her antithesis, someone who was honest and forthright.  
  
Lila shook the deck. “Make sense!” she commanded, swiping a third card off the top and throwing it down.  
  
The familiar specter of Death looked up at her.  
  
Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light that filled the room. Lila looked up and gasped. Some sort of circular portal had appeared right in front of her! A woman with a dyed pink bob, wearing a sky blue and white domino mask and bunny ears, reached forward through it and stripped the deck from Lila’s hand. She was so shocked that she didn’t even have the presence of mind to fight back. By the time she realized what had happened, the mysterious rabbit superhero had vanished, and her room was dark once more.  
  
“What!?” Lila cried, jumping up and running around her room. Her cards. Her cards! They were gone! The four still left on the ground weren’t going to do her any good! All her hard work had come to nothing. Nothing!!!  
  
Lila’s eyes fell on the King of Wands pined to her cork board and she went very still.  
  
That woman…  
  
She was one of Ladybug’s friends, like Rena Rouge or Carapace! She had to be! Ladybug had sent her to steal Lila’s cards!  
  
“That’s it!” cried Lila, letting rage bubble and froth within her. Somehow, Ladybug had found out about Lila’s newfound power and decided to strip her of it. Chloé was right—Ladybug was selfish. The moment she felt like someone might challenge her, she did everything in her power to ensure she wouldn’t have to relinquish her limelight. And to send someone else to do her dirty work on top of that!  
  
A tiny fluttering of wings alerted Lila that an Akuma had arrived, just as she had been hoping. She calmed down slightly and smiled, holding out her arms with her palms up as she waited for the purple butterfly to come to her. She spotted it as it glided along the floor, passing over the four cards discarded on the rug. Lila's hand shot out to pinched its wings.   
  
It was only then that Lila noticed that the King and Queen of Swords shared a butterfly motif on their thrones.  
  
Death stood for _transformation_. Akumatization.  
  
But a King and Queen held power. They weren’t at the whims of anyone else. Which meant that The Magician didn’t stand for the act of being Akumatized at all, but the ability to do so.  
  
The Magician stood for the Butterfly Miraculous.  
  
Lila picked up her deck, the one she had taken the King of Wands out of, and plunged the struggling butterfly into it.  
  
“It’s good to see you again, Lila,” said Hawk Moth in her mind.  
  
Lila’s grin stretched wider. Get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous, bring them to Hawk Moth, and then steal his Miraculous. It was simple. Easy. And the best part was, the cards had already foretold her success.  
  
“The pleasure is all mine, Hawk Moth,” said Lila. “Believe me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Celtic Cross
> 
> http://www.angelpaths.com/spreads3.html


	10. Wheel of Fortune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a really fun chapter to write. I always love coming up with Akuma names/designs/powers. Also, it's a bit of a break from the normal tarot spreads that usually comprise each chapter, but still incorporates aspects of tarot (sort of like Chapter 3). Hope you enjoy Lila being Akumatized yet again, awkward Ladynoir, and Bunnix space-time continuum shenanigans!
> 
> The shout out this time belongs to...OmniVargas! They really made me think hard about what I was trying to say with Lila's one card pulls when she was trying to decipher The Magician. There was definitely a lot to unpack there in a section I kind of brushed over. Plus, I love hearing other's interpretations!

Curled up on her canvas chair on her roof, Marinette stared at the blank page of her sketchbook, willing herself to draw something, anything. Her pencil was poised and ready, the light of the setting sun was perfect, but her mind was elsewhere.  
  
“Er…everything okay, Marinette?” asked Tikki.  
  
“Huh!?” Marinette snapped back to reality and nearly dropped her pencil. She juggled it a bit before getting a secure hold again.  
  
Tikki flew around Marinette’s head. “You’re still thinking about Lila, aren’t you?”  
  
Heaving a sigh, Marinette nodded. She had been thinking about what had happened the entire walk back from Adrien’s house and something about it still didn’t sit right with her. “I just don’t get it, Tikki,” she said. “Lila went through all that work to trick me, but I don’t think she wanted me to miss the whole thing. She just wanted me to be late so she could go first. She did something during her reading to make sure I lost. I’m sure of it! I just…don’t know what it is.”  
  
“I wish I could help you, Marinette, but I know as much about tarot as you do.”  
  
Marinette jumped up from her seat, sending her sketchbook flying. “Tikki, that’s it!” she cried. “I need to talk to an expert.”  
  
The Kwami’s face creased into a smile as it dawned on her who Marinette was talking about. “Madame Magda!” she realized. “That’s a great idea!”  
  
“Thanks, Tikki. Let’s go!”  
  
Her parents were away catering a small event that night, so Marinette grabbed a savory croissant for dinner and headed off to _Voyance_. Luckily, it was open late on Mondays.  
  
It was shaping up to be a beautiful night in Paris. As Marinette hoofed it across the Ponts des Arts, a group of bicyclists whizzed by and she heard André the Ice Cream Man singing one bridge over. A warm breeze played with her hair. She paused for a moment and looked out over the Seine. _Liberty_ was docked just around the bend. She wondered what Luka was doing. Maybe she would stop by after visiting Madame Magda.  
  
André suddenly stopped singing and Marinette wondered why. There was a new sound now though, faint and a bit sporadic. Were they…screams?  
  
“Uh-oh,” Marinette said as she watched several plumes of fire rise into the sky to the west of her. She popped open her purse to see Tikki’s luminous blue eyes looking up at her. “Looks like we’ve got trouble!”  
  
Scanning the area, Marinette decided to head back the way she had come and hide behind the pillars of the French Institute to transform. It looked like her trip to _Voyance_ was going to have to wait.  
  
“Tikki! Spots on!” she said, transforming into Ladybug.  
  
Slipping around the pillar, Marinette witnessed civilians now actively running away as the emergency sirens blared. Now a geyser of water was shooting up from where Marinette had seen the plumes of fire. Flinging out her yo-yo, she snagged a chimney and got dragged upwards. She landed and took off running, vaulting and flipping over the rooftops in the direction of all the commotion. The geyser went back down, but now the earth rumbled and shook, nearly throwing Marinette off balance.  
  
_Fire, water, earth_ …she realized. _Seems this Akuma has control over the elements!_  
  
Jumping down onto a balcony that overlooked a square complete with a little park, Marinette found only destruction. Shattered asphalt, overturned cars, uprooted trees, and black singe marks were everywhere. Some of the surrounding buildings were even on fire with their windows bashed in. In the middle of it all was a figure with long white hair and golden skin. She appeared dressed in an orange sleeveless robe and was wearing a white sweatband. It was an odd look, but Marinette couldn’t help but think she had seen it somewhere before. Maybe in a fashion magazine? The 80s were coming back.  
  
Marinette watched, aghast, as the Akuma shot fire from her hands, melting the colorful jungle gym in the middle of the park as she laughed manically. Leaping down, Marinette wrapped her yo-yo around the Akuma’s legs and pulled. The Akuma fell forward onto her face and was dragged backwards, her flames disrupted. She sent herself flying upward with a gust of wind though and Marinette was forced to allow her yo-yo to unravel before she got taken up too.  
  
The Akuma lowered herself back down and the two faced each other.  
  
“…Lila!?” recognized Marinette, but the Akuma just wrinkled her nose and blasted Marinette with water. It felt like getting hit with a truck.  
  
_Again?_ wondered Marinette, rolling to her feet and escaping. This was the girl’s third Akuma form now. Marinette was beginning to suspect that Lila wanted to get Akumatized.  
  
Dodging swathes of flames, Marinette ran along the sidewalk and up the side of the building, scanning the area for a flash of black. She wasn’t going to be able to defeat Lila without Chat Noir, but now that the Akuma had her sights set on Marinette, it seemed taking the time to call her partner was out of the question. Hopefully, he would arrive soon.  
  
With a growl of frustration, the Akuma gave up trying to burn Marinette to a crisp and used her abilities to generate another earthquake. Marinette was thrown off the building. The Akuma tried to capitalize on this by throwing large chunks of the street at her, but Marinette used her yo-yo to grab onto a streetlight and zip out of harm’s way. Spinning her yo-yo in front of her to create a shield, she deflected blasts of water and gusts of air as she made her way towards the Akuma. Just when she was in striking distance though, the Akuma surrounded herself with fire that went shooting outwards. Marinette did a couple of back handsprings to avoid getting burned.  
  
“Is this Akuma a little too hot for you to handle on your own, My Lady?” drawled a familiar voice.  
  
Marinette’s mouth twitched as she turned to find Chat Noir next to her, his hand out and his staff at the ready.  
  
“Finally!” complained the Akuma, attracting their attention. “Now that you’re both here—Something very precious has been taken from me by one of your freak friends and I want it back!”  
  
Baffled, Marinette turned to Chat Noir for answers only to find him already looking at her with bewilderment.  
  
“What’s she going on about?” he wondered.  
  
Marinette shrugged. “No clue.”  
  
“Where is it!?” the Akuma demanded.  
  
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marinette told her honestly.  
  
“Oh! Don’t play dumb with me!”  
  
The Akuma pulled a deck of cards out of the pocket of her robe. She shuffled them and drew one off the top. It was too far away to tell what it was, but there was a flash of light and the Akuma was suddenly wearing a different outfit. Now she was decked out in gray, with a long, hooded robe. She stormed towards them.  
  
“I’m only going to ask you once,” she said. “Where. Is. The bunny?”  
  
_Bunnix!?_ realized Marinette as she drew back. It was the only answer that made sense. “I don’t know,” she admitted.  
  
The Akuma froze and wilted a little at these words. “Fine,” she decided bitterly. “Do you know who she is?”  
  
“Of course not!”  
  
“LIAR!”  
  
Marinette flinched. How did she know!?  
  
Spitting and hissing like a viper, the Akuma shuffled her cards again and pulling out a new one. In a flash, she was now wearing bright red vestments with a sparkling golden diadem on her head.  
  
Marinette’s eyes widened. Those clothes…they were the clothes of The Hierophant! And, before that, The Hermit and The Magician! Marinette knew they all looked familiar. And it wasn’t just the Akuma’s outfits that were based on tarot, but the powers too. As The Magician, she had classical elemental manipulation because The Magician represented power and had the suits of tarot under his control—fire for wands, water for cups, air for swords, and earth for pentacles. As The Hermit, she had lie detection abilities because The Hermit represented the search for truth.  
  
“You have tarot mimicry!” Marinette realized aloud for Chat’s benefit.  
  
“Took you long enough,” snorted the Akuma. She gave a sweeping curtsy. “I am the one, the only…Arcana.”  
  
With one mystery solved, Marinette’s mind jumped to the next. What was Arcana planning to do with the power of The Hierophant? The words ‘belief system’ and ‘conform’ immediately jumped to mind, but before Marinette could suss out an answer, the Akuma was already talking.  
  
“Chat Noir, I’m of no threat to you,” she told the boy sweetly. “You believe me, don’t you?”  
  
“Of course!”  
  
“What!?” cried Marinette, doing a double-take. “Chat, she’s an Akuma!”  
  
“So?” wondered the boy, his brow wrinkling. “You heard her. She’s harmless.”  
  
“Then you wouldn’t mind telling me who the rabbit superhero is, would you?” asked Arcana.  
  
“I’d be happy to!” said Chat eagerly. “It’s—"  
  
“No!” cried Marinette, reaching over to cover Chat’s mouth, but she was too late.  
  
“—Alix Kudbel.”  
  
Marinette’s arms dropped in defeat while Arcana cackled. She shuffled her cards and pulled a fourth one from the deck. Her clothes transformed. She was now wearing a dress that looked and moved as if it were made of clouded water. Without another word, she turned and began to run away.  
  
Chat shook his head rather violently. “What just—!?” He turned to Marinette, frantic. “I’m so sorry, Ladybug! I don’t know what came over me, but I didn’t mean to—”  
  
“I know, I know,” Marinette assured her partner. “She used the power of The Hierophant and made you believe what she said. And now she’s using the power of The Star!”  
  
“Which is…?”  
  
“I don’t know, but we can’t let her get away!”  
  
The two gave chase, nearly catching up to Arcana as she left the square. Just as Marinette went for her yo-yo though, it suddenly felt as if the ground beneath her feet got jerked to the side. She stumbled and fell, overcome with a sudden bout of dizziness. Chat Noir collapsed on top of her, slowly rolling off as he groaned, apparently suffering from the same thing. Arcana laughed again as she easily escaped.  
  
“Our equilibrium…” realized Marinette, closing her eyes to stop everything from spinning. “…She threw it off…”  
  
“Ugh…she’s really holding nothing back, huh?”  
  
“Well, The Star does represent generosity…” The feeling subsided as Arcana moved further away and Marinette was able to get up onto her hands and knees. “We’re lucky she’s after Alix right now. With powers like that, she could’ve easily taken our Miraculouses.”  
  
Chat sat up as quickly as his body would allow. “I didn’t even think of that! What are we gonna do?”  
  
Marinette jumped to her feet as an idea came to her. “We need Viperion’s help.”  
  
“Luka…” realized Chat. “Are you sure that’s safe? His identity is compromised.”  
  
“I know, but Arcana is super powerful. I don’t want to take any chances with a new holder.” _Or the wrong holder_ , thought Marinette, remembering Adrien with a grimace. She reached down and helped Chat to his feet. “You grab Luka. I’m going to go get the Snake Miraculous. We’ll meet back up by the Louvre.”  
  
“Ssssounds like a plan.”  
  
They barely went two steps in opposite directions when there was a flash of cyan light. A voice called out.  
  
“Wait!”  
  
Marinette and Chat turned around to find a perfectly circular portal of light, an adult Alix stepping out of it. No, wait, it was Bunnix, but her costume was slightly translucent, revealing the woman’s normal punk attire beneath her magical transformation. Marinette did not think that was a good sign.  
  
“You two aren’t going anywhere,” she said. “C’mon, Mini-Bug and Kitty Noir. Into the Burrow.”  
  
Marinette didn’t even get a chance to argue. Bunnix simply grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away, a befuddled Chat following.  
  
Words escaped Marinette once they entered the Burrow. It was like being on the inside of a vast golf ball, all the little dimples a different portal. Looked over her shoulder at the one they just used, she saw the destroyed square before it turned blurry like the ones that surrounded it. They came in all sorts of colors, looking like impressionist paintings.  
  
Chat Noir stared up at the ceiling that seemed to go on forever. “Whoa…” he said, rocking back on his heels as he craned his neck to get a better look. Then he looked down and flinched. Even though it seemed like they were standing on solid ground, there was nothing but empty space below their feet.  
  
There was something…wrong though. Half the space didn’t seem to have portals, even though it looked like it should. Bunnix was taking them to where they stopped.  
  
“Are you the one who stole from Lila?” Marinette asked.  
  
“Yeah,” the woman admitted. “I was trying to fix the timeline, but I ended up making everything way worse. In the near future, you and Kitty Noir are going to lose your Miraculouses to Arcana, and, because you got Viperion involved, he keeps on using Second Chance to undo it.”  
  
“Isn’t that a good thing?” wondered Chat.  
  
“It is if you’re able to defeat Arcana, but you never do.” She dropped Marinette’s wrist to gesture broadly to the blank half of the Burrow. “Instead, you’ll stop time from progressing!”  
  
“What!?” cried Marinette, looking at the white space with new eyes.  
  
“If time doesn’t progress, I don’t get the Rabbit Miraculous, so I had to intervene before it was too late.”  
  
“So that’s what’s happening to your suit…”  
  
“Hold your hares, there,” cut in Chat. “Are you absolutely sure we can’t stop Arcana after an infinite amount of tries?”  
  
Bunnix seemed prepared for this. Without even looking, she pressed her hand to the closest portal. Its blurry focus sharpened, and it began to play like a video. Marinette blinked as she watched herself confront Arcana in front of the Pyramide du Louvre. She had apparently just finished transforming and was now wearing a short, gaudy dress with ragged bell sleeves paired with olive green leggings and bright yellow boots. On her head she wore a yellow turban with a large red feather sticking out it.  
  
_The Fool_ , Marinette recognized.  
  
Ladybug wrap Arcana up in her yo-yo string before the Akuma was able to put her deck away.  
  
“Chat Noir, now!” she shouted.  
  
Chat came vaulting over the glass pyramid with Cataclysm already in his hand. Arcana just smiled as he dropped in front of her and slammed the ball of dark energy on her tarot cards. Some sort of force field imprinted with the same sliced orange pattern as her dress cropped up though and prevented Chat’s attack. Instead, Cataclysm splattered everywhere like a fire hydrant gushing water, briefly blotting out the portal. When the view returned, there was a huge crater in the ground, biting into a square hole where the pyramid used to be, its shattered remains littering the courtyard like ice. Marinette grimaced as her eyes fell on Ladybug and Chat’s unconscious forms as Arcana, untouched, tossed her head back to laugh. She reached down to remove Chat’s ring.  
  
“Second Chance!” came Luka’s familiar voice from somewhere in the distance. The video froze.  
  
“What!? No, that’s impossible,” insisted Chat by Marinette’s side. “How did she reflect Cataclysm!?”  
  
“It must be the power of The Fool,” said Marinette. “That makes sense. One aspect of The Fool is embracing folly. Look at how Arcana just stood there, waiting for your attack. It seemed foolish, but she had faith her ability would protect her.”  
  
“Okay, so she beat us that one time—”  
  
“Really!?” demanded Bunnix, swiping up. The whole column went cycling through its portals, landing on a random one with similar colors. The woman held her hand up to it and it began to play.  
  
At first Marinette thought it was the same as before—there was the entrance to the Louvre, Ladybug confronting Arcana—but now Chat was by her side. Marinette had to assume this attempt had happened prior to the other timeline they had just witnessed.  
  
This time around, Arcana was decked out in a long, baggy dress, white with a lotus seed print and a gold and pearl neckline. She wore a crown of star-cut diamonds.  
  
“This ends here, Arcana!” Marinette heard herself say. “You’re not getting Alix Kudbel!”  
  
Arcana ignored her. “Chat Noir, doesn’t Ladybug look simply ravishing today?”  
  
Chat’s eyes slid out of focus and a dreamy expression crossed his face.  
  
“Chat…?” wondered Ladybug, realizing something had gone horribly wrong with her partner as she waved her hand in front of his face. He grabbed it.  
  
“The most beautiful bug I’ve ever met,” he said, pressing his lips against her knuckles.  
  
“Chat! Snap out of it!” Ladybug tried to pull away, but Chat refused to relinquish her hand. It dawned on Marinette about the same time as her counterpart what was happening. Arcana had taken on the guise of The Empress, who, among other things, represented experiencing the senses and giving into earthly pleasures. “This isn’t—no! Let go of me.”  
  
Ladybug tried to pull away, but Chat growled playfully and tackled her, burrowing his face in her neck as he kissed every square inch of it. She struggled and shouted in vain, trying and failing to throw him off. Arcana took advantage of the situation. She skipped over and made a move to yank off one of Ladybug’s earrings.  
  
“Viperion!” cried Ladybug, desperate.  
  
“Second Chance!”  
  
The screen froze.  
  
Flustered, Chat turned to Marinette, his face beet red. “M-my Lady, I would never—!”  
  
Marinette found herself unable to look her partner in the eye. “R-right!” she agreed quickly. “Arcana used some sort of…” _Lust inducement_. That was the term Marinette was looking for, but it felt icky to say.  
  
“Yeah!” agreed Chat eagerly so she wouldn’t have to name it.  
  
_At least all Chat wanted to do was make-out with my neck_ , Marinette decided. She felt a tickle where she had seen her partner passionately kiss her and immediately grabbed the spot with her hand. Was it hot in the Burrow? Because it suddenly felt like it was a million degrees and she couldn’t breathe.  
  
“She uses that power on Ladybug too if you want to see one of those ones,” suggested Bunnix.  
  
“No! No! That’s okay!” said Chat, his voice unnaturally high. He cleared his throat. “Um. There’s gotta be at least one time when we got close to defeating Arcana, right? Maybe we can learn how to stop her from that.”  
  
“That’s the thing,” said Bunnix, scrolling through the portals again. “You and Mini-Bug get close loads of times, but Arcana always uses her trump card.”  
  
The woman started up a new timeline. In this one, Arcana had chosen to remain with the powers of The Star. Chat, and only Chat, approached her.  
  
“You do realize what I can do in this form, don’t you?” Arcana asked.  
  
Chat raised his arm up into the air, palm up. “Cataclysm!” he yelled, summoning the dark and destructive energy to his hand. “Oh, I know, all right,” he told her. “But if I go down, I’m taking you with me.”  
  
Arcana’s face twisted as she realized she had been had. She pulled out her deck and shuffled it. “Fine! Let’s see how you deal with this!”  
  
Something red with black polka dots sailed overhead. Marinette recognized herself using a hand glider she had obviously summoned with Lucky Charm. She dropped down and wrapped the Akuma up in her yo-yo string just as she transformed.  
  
“Gotcha!” said Ladybug.  
  
But Marinette knew this plan also ended in failure, and Arcana’s new clothes showed why. She now wore a suit of armor beneath regal robes of dark orange with a scarlet sash. On her head was a king’s crown, gold and decorated with diamonds and garnets.  
  
_The Emperor represents authority and regulation_ , thought Marinette.  
  
“Stop!” Arcana demanded. Ladybug and Chat froze. “Release me!”  
  
Ladybug tugged on her yo-yo string and her weapon zipped back into her hand, releasing the Akuma. Arcana smiled like a shark.  
  
“Give me your Miraculous!”  
  
Obediently, Ladybug reached for her ear to take off one of her earrings.  
  
“Second Chance!” called out Luka and then everything froze for a third time.  
  
“See, when Arcana’s dressed like that, you have to do what she says,” explained Bunnix. She scrolled through portals idly. “She doesn’t even need to resort to that most of the time though. I’ve seen her paralyze you, put you to sleep, blind you with light—and it’s almost like she knows what you’re going to do before you even do it.”  
  
“So then, what’s the plan?” wondered Chat, scratching the side of his head.  
  
“This is it. I pulled you guys out before you got stuck in that infinite loop in the first place.”  
  
“But that’s not going to defeat Arcana!” Marinette pointed out. She put a fist to her chin and closed one eye as she thought hard. “What if…I use my Lucky Charm now? It might help us.”  
  
Bunnix shrugged. “Worth a shot, Mini-Bug. I’m open to anything at this point.”  
  
With a nod, Marinette geared up to throw her yo-yo into the air. “Lucky…Charm!”  
  
The weapon when zooming ten feet above her head and began to emit pink sparks that transformed into large ladybugs. They swarmed together into an upward spiral and vanished, transforming into something red with black spots. It dropped into Marinette’s outstretched hands.  
  
“A teapot?” recognized Chat Noir. “But I thought Master Fu…”  
  
Marinette ran her thumb over the raised trinity symbol of the side of the stone pot. “No. This is Madame Magda’s.”  
  
“That’s it!” cried Chat. He turning to a confused Bunnix. “With your time-traveling abilities, you can go back to when Madame Magda was still giving tarot readings and get one done on how we can defeat Arcana!”  
  
Bunnix blinked at him. “Um. What…?”  
  
Marinette nodded her head eagerly, proud of her partner for developing such a plan. “He’s right!” she said. “Will you do it, Bunnix?”  
  
The woman crossed her arms and leaned back. “Well…I know from experience that Lucky Charm is never wrong…” She thought through Chat’s plan for a moment more. “Okay,” she decided. “I’ll do it if you really think it’ll help. Where can I find this…Madame Magda?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were curious, here are all of Arcana's abilities with the ones mentioned in the chapter in **bold**. Those ones won't be changing, but if you have a better idea for the other ones, I'd love to hear about your thought process ^_^
> 
>  **0 – The Fool – Power Reflection**  
>  **1 – The Magician – Classical Elemental Manipulation (Earth, Air, Water, Fire)**  
>  2 – The High Priestess – Aura Reading  
>  **3 – The Empress – Lust Inducement**  
>  **4 – The Emperor – Command Inducement**  
>  **5 – The Hierophant – Belief Inducement**  
>  6 – The Lovers – Soul Resonation  
> 7 – The Chariot – Enhanced Combat  
> 8 – Strength – Super Strength  
>  **9 – The Hermit – Lie Detection**  
>  10 – Wheel of Fortune – Luck Energy Manipulation  
> 11 – Justice – Law Inducement  
> 12 – The Hanged Man – Pain Manipulation  
> 13 – Death – Scythe Proficiency  
> 14 – Temperance – Liquid Manipulation  
> 15 – The Devil – Dark Magic  
> 16 – The Tower – Destruction  
>  **17 – The Star – Equilibrium Manipulation**  
>  **18 – The Moon – Induce Sleep**  
>  **19 – The Sun – Light Generation**  
>  **20 – Judgement – Binding**  
>  21 – The World – Nature Unity
> 
> Arcana also naturally possesses **Intuitive Precognition** no matter what form she takes.


	11. Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.
> 
> Takes place shortly after the end of Season 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure about you guys, but I want more Bunnix (or is it Bunnyx? It's Bunnyx on the Miraculous Ladybug Wiki, but I think I read somewhere that Bunnix was the correct spelling, and those who commented about her in previous chapters also called her Bunnix). Anyway, it was super fun to write as her and mix it up a bit. I hope I did her justice (especially since it's the title of the chapter =P)
> 
> Also, I found this spread to be super fascinating. I love searching for spreads and I feel like this one was absolutely perfect for the circumstance.
> 
> Shout out this time goes to...thesorceressfromthelake. First off, cool name. Second off, I thought it was really awesome of them to ask me what my favorite card was (it's The Sun). I'm so glad to hear you're enjoying the fic. I hope you like this chapter too!

Usually, when Alix had to decide where she was going to exit her Burrow, it was a rooftop since she was in less danger of being seen. The fight with Timetagger had been a bit of a fluke—she kind of had to do what she had seen when she was a kid. Time was funny like that, all full of loops and loose ends that got cut. But she had never, in all her time of using the Rabbit Miraculous, witnessed time getting stuck like this. Worse, it was somehow her own doing.  
  
It was a cloudy day in Paris, the air still and cloying. Alix found the rooftop access to the hotel she was standing on top of and forced it open before detransforming.  
  
Fluff was, predictably, wired. “What is today? Is it yesterday? Tomorrow!?”  
  
“The past,” Alix acknowledged, digging through her pack and pulling out a shrink-wrapped package of baby carrots. “It’s a little bit after the Hero’s Day when Gabriel Agreste went all Scarlet Moth.”  
  
Fluff couldn’t seem to wait for Alix to get the bag of carrots open. As soon as there was a little tear and it filled with air, the Kwami phased inside of it and began to munch. Startled, Alix nearly dropped the bag before laughing at her little friend. She booped Fluff on the nose through the bio-degradable recycled plastic.  
  
“Anyway, Mini-bug and Kitty Noir told me Madame Magda’s shop is on this street across from the Tuileries. Shouldn’t be hard to find. You ready?”  
  
“I am both always and never and also sometimes ready,” said Fluff through her mouthful of carrots as she went to hide in Alix’s vest.  
  
It was as good of an answer as any. “Then let’s go.”  
  
Since time was never an issue for her, Alix was in no rush as she walked down the stairs. She grabbed a chocolate mint from the lobby of the hotel as if she were a paying customer before strolling out the door. Two blocks over though and she stopped dead in front of a familiar door craved with concentric circles, the letters V-O-Y-A-N-C-E spaced above it.  
  
She held the butt of her palm to her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. Why didn’t she make the connection sooner!?  
  
The thing was, the tarot cards Alix stole from Lila were more than just always right. _They were an anomaly_. Lila never had the cards in _any_ timeline and then, suddenly, she had them in _all_ of them. Alix had never seen anything like it before. Confused, she spied on the snot-nosed twerp using the Burrow and traced the cards back through time to Nathalie, and then to Gabriel Agreste, naturally. And he, as Hawk Moth, had gotten the deck of cards from this very shop. Well, stolen them anyway. That was pretty evident from the way he bashed in the door. But though Gabriel had walked right in without any issue, Alix couldn’t follow. She was somehow prevented from seeing anything that happened in the shop, at least from the safety of her Burrow. She could’ve probably crossed its threshold in person, but she thought it best not to mess with powers she didn’t understand and get the cards away from Lila instead.  
  
Alix put a hand over her pocket, feeling the stolen deck through the fabric. Apparently, everything came back to this Madame Magda. But who was she? Why did she have this deck of cards? Why couldn’t Alix look inside her shop?  
  
An overwhelming sense of foreboding flooded Alix’s veins, but she knew what she had to do. She took in a deep breath, steeled herself, and entered _Voyance_.  
  
The bells jangled cheerily as if this were any other New Age shop. All sorts of smells assaulted Alix’s nose, some pleasant, some acidic, melding together into a potpourri that she could only describe as ‘unique.’ While all the wares were neatly displayed, it was clear from their arrangement and the thin film of dust that no one had yet to browse them. It made the shop feel…sad. Like it was lonely or forgotten despite all the warmth it had to give.  
  
 _Warmth?_ thought Alix. She didn’t know why that word jumped into her head. Perhaps because the shop was small and filled with earth tones and luxurious fabrics. It made it feel cozy. Alix wondered why she had been so hesitant to enter _Voyance_ not even a moment ago. There was nothing dangerous here.  
  
Then Alix realized she wasn’t alone in the shop and flinched. There was a hulking figure in the corner, sitting behind some glass displays that served as a check-out counter. On closer inspection, Alix realized it was a woman dressed in what could only be described as a tunic made from a quilt. It was mostly white, with navy and yellow trapezoids in different shades and patterns smattered throughout. A yellow scarf cinched the waist and she had accessorized with a boxy navy hat and giant hoop earrings. It appeared the woman hadn’t noticed Alix yet though. She was too busy focusing on the three cards set out before her. Assuming this was Madame Magda, Alix went up to introduce herself.  
  
“You must be her…” said the woman softly without looking up.  
  
Alix froze.  
  
The woman lifted her head, a huge smile on her face. Alix was struck by her lack of eyebrows and eyelashes. “My first customer of the day!”  
  
Alix’s heart restarted, and she chided herself for believing the woman was mystical for a moment. “Yup, that’s me!” she said. “Are you Madame Magda?”  
  
“The one and only, tarot card reader extraordinaire!” She eased herself out of her seat. “How can I help you today, darling?”  
  
“I’m looking to have a reading done. Some, uh…friends recommended you.”  
  
“Lovely!” She spun around and whipped out a pad of paper receipts, surprising agile for one her size. “Referrals get a 15% discount, so that’ll be thirty-four euros.”  
  
“Oh, um…”  
  
Alix silently cursed herself. It’s not like she didn’t have any money, it was just that paper money was rare, and her credit chip didn’t exist yet.  
  
“You know what, darling?” said Madame Magda, sensing Alix’s dismay. “Why don’t I give you one on the house?”  
  
“Dang, Mad Mags. Are you sure?”  
  
The tarot reader chuckled. “Mad Mags…I like it! Yes, I am quite sure. You seem like a woman in need.”  
  
Alix shrugged. She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Sounds good.”  
  
Madame Magda grabbed the three cards she had been looking at and swept them back into her deck, taking it with her as she stepped out from behind the counter. She weaved her way through her shop towards a doorway set between two bookcases. Alix thought for sure she would knock into something by accident, but anytime she came close, she would gracefully evade. It was impressive, to say the least. She clearly knew her shop down to the smallest detail.  
  
“In here, darling,” said the woman, holding open the curtain that was already being held back by a hook. “This is my reading nook. Pretty neat, yes? I haven’t had much of a chance to use it yet.”  
  
“Don’t get a lot of customers, huh?” wondered Alix, even though she suspected the answer. It was well into the afternoon by this point, yet she was apparently the first one of the day.  
  
“Not yet!” said Madame Magda with a wink.  
  
Alix had to hand it to the woman—her confidence was off the charts, but she pulled it off well. Alix could respect that.  
  
The two of them settled in around a small table draped with white fabric, candles and a crystal ball arranged along the far edge closest to the curtained wall. Madame Magda shuffled her tarot cards like a seasoned dealer at a casino.  
  
“I’m not sure how familiar you are with tarot,” said the woman. “But there are basically two types of readings—open readings and question readings. Normally I start people off with an open reading, usually with an arrangement cards—a ‘spread’—called a Celtic Cross. But I’m sensing you have something specific you want to ask me.”  
  
“How’d you know?” wondered Alix, crossing her arms, her guard up.  
  
“Well, your friends referred you here, so I assume you have an issue that they were unable to help you solve.”  
  
“You could say that again,” said Alix, relaxing a bit. So, this Madame Magda was simply very preceptive, not clairvoyant. “Let’s just say I’ve got this enemy that seems impossible to defeat.”  
  
“Say no more, darling. I believe I have the perfect spread for you!”  
  
Madame Magda handed the cards over to Alix as if there were nothing special about them, even though they looked exactly like the cards in Alix’s pocket. Did the woman maybe not know of their power? No, that was impossible. Then maybe this set was a copy, a fake, like the one Lila had Nate make. If that were the case though, it would be easy enough to figure out based off of Alix’s reading if they were the real deal or not.  
  
“Oh, you’re supposed to shuffle them, darling,” said Madame Magda helpfully.  
  
Alix winced. “Right.”  
  
She got to work with stiff fingers, not used to shuffling. Her father actually collected decks of cards, but they weren’t used for games. The only other cards in the house had been Jalil’s _Magic: The Gathering_ ones. Alix used to steal them and return them at random just to mess with him.  
  
 _Wow. I really was a brat, wasn’t I?_ thought Alix as she finished and handed the deck back. Madame Magda had to smooth it out before drawing from the top. She laid them down in a pattern that only she seemed to know.  
  
“We’re looking at a specialized situational relationship spread,” she explained. “One for an enemy, to be specific.”  
  
She finished laying down six cards and put the deck aside. It looked like a capital ‘T’ with a smaller ‘I’ next to it.  
  
“The Enemy Spread is unique because it has two endings. The situation can either end in peace…” Madame Magda pointed to the left card that made up the top of the ‘T’. “Or end in chaos.” She pointed to the card right next to it. “Sometimes one is preferable over the other. If that is the case though, the cards will make it perfectly clear.”  
  
“Peace or chaos, huh?” Alix had no clue what that entailed, but she was willing to try anything by this point. Anything to get time to move forward again.  
  
“Indeed.” Madame Magda pushed up her sleeves. “Let’s begin! It is a rather simple spread, but there is beauty in its simplicity. This over here…” She patted the ‘I’. “This is your enemy and their weakness. And over here…” She patted the lower part of the ‘T’. “This is you and your strength. Note how both endings—peace and chaos—are balanced on top of you. They are dependent on you and your actions. You have the power here, not your enemy.”  
  
“Doesn’t feel like it…” muttered Alix.  
  
“What was that, darling?”  
  
“Uh. Nothing. Keep going, Mags.”  
  
Madame Magda nodded. “We’re going to start with this card in Position 1.” She tapped the card at the bottom of the ‘T’ with a fake nail decorated with tiny press-on flowers. “This is you.”  
  
Alix nodded. It looked like wouldn’t have to wait long to see if this deck were the anomaly or not.  
  
With a flourish, Madame Magda turned the card to reveal a medieval-style ruler, sitting on a stone throne rising up out of a sea. They wore blue robes, a yellow cloak edged in red, and a crown with what looked to be ear flaps. They held a giant goblet in one hand and a scepter in the other.  
  
“Well, look at you!” said Madame Magda. “You are the King of Cups.”  
  
“I’m a king? Awesome!”  
  
“This tells me that you are a wise and understanding young woman. You possess knowledge far beyond your age. You’re a leader and a teacher—you guide those who are younger or less experienced than you, but you also allow them to make mistakes so they can grow and learn from their experiences.”  
  
Alix couldn’t help but grin as she thought of Mini-Bug and Kitty Noir. They were so young. They had no clue what was in store for them, or even what had been, had Alix not been around to fix it. Thinking of the timeline with Chat Blanc in it still made her shutter.  
  
Madame Magda continued. “You keep your cool even during emergencies. Because of these attributes though, you are often forced to deal with a lot of crises. Does that sound about right?”  
  
“Oh, man, does it ever! When everyone else fails, I’m called in to solve the problem.”  
  
“I can’t blame your friends for relying on you like they do. Kings of Cups instinctually know how to best resolve most situations. I bet your friends were a little shocked when you asked them for help since it’s probably usually the other way around!”  
  
Bobbing her head, Alix suspected the cards were magic, but she thought she’d give it one more card just to make sure.  
  
“What’s the next card?” she wondered, trying to appear causal.  
  
“That would be your enemy,” said Madame Magda, putting her hand on the bottom of the ‘I’ and learning forward conspirationally. “Enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they’re situations. Sometimes they’re people. But you can’t stop them until you know exactly who or what they are.”  
  
“Oh, I know exactly who it is,” admitted Alix. “It’s this girl I know. She’s an attention hog and a total fraud. Once she gets a little bit of power though, look out. She will make you suffer.”  
  
“How awful!” Madame Magda turned the card in question, revealing a horned, winged demon. “So, she’s The Devil, is she?”  
  
Alix couldn’t help but laugh. “Mags! You nailed it!”  
  
“Of course, this isn’t to say she’s the embodiment of evil, but The Devil card represents things that are undesirable. Has this girl got you feeling trapped? Do you feel controlled by her?”  
  
Okay, these definitely _were_ the magic cards, which was a little crazy. Why was Madame Magda using them for what essentially boiled down to retail!? Heck, she wasn’t even charging Alix to use them!  
  
“Wow, uh…tell me again why you don’t have more customers?” Alix asked.  
  
There was a rumble of laughter from Madame Magda, like a late summer thunderstorm. “I suppose I really haven’t done anything to market myself. Why?”  
  
“That’s a pretty good read on my enemy. She does have me trapped. And while she isn’t controlling me directly, she does have that ability and I feel like there’s no stopping her.”  
  
“That’s exactly what she wants! Devils are notorious for trying to make you feel helpless, to make you despair and doubt yourself. They fool you. They make it seem like there is no way for you to win. They prevent you from seeing beyond the current situation, so the future looks bleak. But don’t forget who you are! You are the King of Cups. You have the power to resolve this situation!”  
  
“ _How?_ ”  
  
“Excellent question. And we’ll get to that. But first you need to remember that this enemy of yours isn’t all-powerful. She’s got a weakness, just like you or I.”  
  
“All right…” Alix was pretty sure Arcana didn’t have a weakness, or Mini-Bug and Kitty Noir and Viper Boy would’ve defeated her in at least one of the timelines. Still, maybe there was something she wasn’t seeing.  
  
Flipping over the card above The Devil, Madame Magda clucked her tongue disapprovingly. “Of course. It is a common downfall of the power-hungry.”  
  
“What is it?” wondered Alix, leaning forward to get a better look.  
  
On the card was an ugly crone in a burgundy dress wearing a simple crown. A black shawl was draped over her shoulders and across her lap, looking like a cloud of darkness. Her arms were curled tightly around a large yellow disk with a star etched into it, about the size of a serving plate. There were three more disks—one balanced on her head and two others beneath each foot.  
  
“The Four of Pentacles,” Madame Magda explained. “The desire to control, to impose one’s will. Your enemy can’t handle it when things don’t go her way.”  
  
“But they _are_ going her way.”  
  
“That is where you are wrong, darling. She has blinded you to the truth, as Devils are wont to do. You see, control…” The woman reached out and, with a bit of sleight of hand, produced a coin, a pentacle, from behind Alix’s ear. “Control is an illusion. The more you try to hold on to it…” She cupped the coin in her hands, then pulled them apart to show that it had vanished. “…the more it escapes your grasp.”  
  
“So…she’s not in control? She only thinks that she is?”  
  
“Precisely. A lot of the power she has, you actually gave her.”  
  
Alix grimaced. Madame Magda had no way to know, but her words weren’t just metaphorical.  
  
“How do I take it back?” Alix wondered.  
  
“Ah! How, indeed? You’ll need to rely on your strengths.” She tapped the card above the King of Cups. “This is the key to your outcomes. You can’t control your enemy, but you can control yourself.”  
  
Without further ado, Madame Magda turned the card over to reveal a figure with his back turned. He appeared to be on a mountaintop, overlooking the sea at sunset. He leaned against a sapling.  
  
“You can see very far, can’t you?” said Madame Magda. “You usually have the knowledge to guide others to their best future.”  
  
It was unnerving, the way this woman spoke sometimes. Alix thought it best to play it off. “You said it yourself—I’m the King of Cups. I’m a leader and a guide.”  
  
“Quite right, darling. Leadership is something that the Three of Wands represents, along with exploring the unknown and foresight.”  
  
“Foresight? Like…” Seeing the past, present, and future from her Burrow? “I can predict things before they happen?”  
  
“Wouldn’t that be interesting! But, no, it’s referring to being prepared, darling. Using your wealth of experience to anticipate obstacles! You always know what to expect. Instead of reacting in the heat of the moment, you usually step back and consider your options.”  
  
Alix blinked. Yes, she did usually do that, didn’t she? But not when she came across those cards. They confused and scared her so much that she ended up having a knee-jerk reaction to them. She didn’t take the time to see the ripples they created. She didn’t want to. Instead, she assumed she knew best and simply removed them from the timeline entirely, much to the detriment of…well… _everything_.  
  
“Mags…What if I didn’t?” asked Alix quietly.  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“What if I didn’t think things through and that’s why my enemy is causing problems?”  
  
Madame Magda grew thoughtful as she leaned back. “The Three of Wands is very similar to The Fool. Have you heard of it?”  
  
Alix nodded. What had Mini-Bug said? _One aspect of The Fool is embracing folly._  
  
“The Fool and the Three of Wands are reinforcing cards. They both depict a figure standing on a cliff. The difference between the two though is profound. The Fool steps out on that cliff not realizing he is going to fall to his fate. The adventurer on the Three of Wands, on the other hand, step out on that cliff in full awareness of what he is doing. Sometimes, we are The Fool, unaware of the cost of our actions. But that’s okay. We learn from our mistakes and grow as people. Leadership isn’t an innate ability, after all, but a learned one. So, you were The Fool. So what? You’re trying to overcome your mistake. That’s why your strength is in the Three of Wands. That’s why you’re here now! You gave your enemy the upper hand, but you are not about to let that stand. So, let’s see. Let’s see how you can end this. Let’s look at the peaceful option first.”  
  
Fluff wiggled a little in excitement and Alix bit down on her smile. _Finally_ , she thought. The other cards had been interesting, but this was what she was here for.  
  
Madame Magda flipped the card. The first thing Alix noticed was a black flag with the White Rose of York on it, though only a history nerd like her father could’ve known that. It was being carried by a skeleton in black armor, riding upon a white horse.  
  
“Whoa! How metal,” said Alix. “Love the aesthetic.”  
  
Madame Magda’s beetle black eyes glittered. “Now that’s a reaction to Death I’ve never heard before! How positively refreshing.”  
  
“Well, Death’s just the next big adventure, isn’t it?” It was a little hard to grow up in a family of Egyptologists and not have that view. “But that seems like a pretty extreme way to achieve peace with my enemy.”  
  
“If there was ever a truism in tarot, it’s that Death rarely if ever means a physical one. It does represent an ending though, which makes it the perfect card for Position 5. It seems to me that you’ve been struggling against your enemy for a long time.”  
  
“…You could say that.”  
  
“You must be simply exhausted! You probably haven’t had a moment’s rest since this whole mess started, but part of that, unfortunately, is on you.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“You refuse to give up.”  
  
“Duh, Mags. I can’t let her win.”  
  
“But what if you did?”  
  
Alix wrinkled her nose.  
  
“I know it might be difficult and that it's something you're reluctant to do, but you’re stuck,” Madame Magda pointed out. “The only way to move forward is to end things.”  
  
“I can’t do that!"  
  
“Don’t forget that endings aren’t permanent—they are simply transitions into a new state of being. You ‘die’ to the present so a new future can unfold. And maybe there you will be able to stop your enemy.”  
  
Turning the words over in her head, Alix thought of something her father used to say. “Lose the battle but win the war.”  
  
“Exactly!”  
  
“Huh. I never thought of it like that.” So, she was supposed to let Arcana take Mini-Bug and Kitty Noir’s Miraculouses? “Seems…kinda dangerous though, Mags.”  
  
“I know, but it might be the only way forward. Of course, if peace isn’t an option, there is also chaos…”  
  
“Oh, that’s right! You said there were two possible endings, right? Peace and chaos. And the cards will make it clear which one is the best choice.”  
  
Madame Magda nodded serenely, her nimble fingers turning over the last card.  
  
She immediately started laughing.  
  
It wasn’t the soft rumble of before, but a full-bellied laugh that Alix felt echo through her bones and right down through the soles of her feet. It was the kind of laughter that was both alarming and slightly amusing. Wanting to get in on the joke, Alix peered at the card. There was a man in ridiculous clothes, holding a bindle and a white rose, standing on…a cliff…  
  
“The Fool?” guessed Alix.  
  
Madame Magda brought her hand down on the table with a bang, making everything, including Alix, jump. “This is perfect!” she cried. “The Fool opposes The Devil’s cynicism and lack of faith, opposes the Four of Pentacles’ order and regularity, opposes Death’s ending and closing down, and reinforces the Three of Wands’ expanding horizons and going into unexplored territory! Don’t you see, darling? I told you the cards would make it clear which route was best. They are clearly advising chaos!”  
  
“I-I don’t…”  
  
But Madame Magda was on a roll, giddy with excitement as she spoke with her hands, nearly knocking over the unlit candles. “It isn’t often I see a confluence such as this! This one card ties into almost all the previous ones. It opposes your enemy fully. She wants to make you feel trapped? The Fool tells you to have faith and believe in a better future. You’re not trapped at all, simply planning your next move. She wants to control you? Be spontaneous! Be impulsive! Your enemy can’t account for what she can’t predict. The Fool also opposes the peace option. It opposes Death. It tells you, ‘Do not go quietly into that good night!’ It warns you, ‘Don’t give your enemy an inch, or she will take a mile!’ You need to flip the situation around. This is not the end. Oh, no. It is only the beginning! And do you want to know why?”  
  
She paused. It took Alix a moment to realize the tarot reader was expecting an answer, or at least an echo, showman that she was. “Why?”  
  
“Because while The Fool opposes everything your enemy stands for—The Devil, the Four of Pentacles, even Death, which is definitely her preferred outcome—it supports _you_. Well, your strength anyway. Specifically, the exploration aspect of the Three of Wands. There is still so much that you don’t know that is waiting to be discovered. Are you ready to go into the unknown?”  
  
 _Please, not that song again_ , thought Alix, having vivid flashbacks back to 2019. Still, the word really struck her. Unknown. Like the cards in Alix’s pocket that were also on the table. She had entered _Voyance_ with so many questions and hadn’t gotten answers for any of them. She’d question Madame Magda once the reading wrapped up though, since she spotted something odd about the spread now that it was all laid out in front of her.  
  
“What about the King of Cups?” Alix wondered. “The Fool ties into all the other cards—why not that one?”  
  
“You have a sharp eye, darling. I expect nothing less from a King of Cups! The answer may disappoint you though. Court cards simply don’t have opposing or reinforcing cards.” The woman paused, thinking it over. “However, even if The Fool doesn’t support the King of Cups literally, it does thematically.”  
  
“How?”  
  
“The Fool is a jester in the court of a king. He offers insight and advice by taking advantage of his license to mock and speak freely in order to dispense frank observations and highlight the folly of his monarch.”  
  
“But I thought The Fool was all about embracing folly?”  
  
Madame Magda drummed on the table. “Correct! He encourages you to accept the choices you’ve made. It is only by recognizing our mistakes that we can learn and grow.”  
  
Like how it was a mistake to steal the magic deck from Lila in the first place? But how was Alix supposed to learn from that? Stealing was bad, sure, but Lila had stolen the deck first and planned to use it for evil. Maybe the only solution was for Alix to go back and undo her theft. Of course, she had been standing in the Burrow when it happened, so she’d have to go back to before then and warn her past self not to make her mistake. Then her current self would…cease to exist. And her past self...would never learn her lesson.  
  
 _Oh,_ thought Alix, her eyes widening. _Oh, no.  
  
_ The cards didn’t want her to do that. They wanted her to move forward, and not by erasing the past.  
  
Did they want her to give Lila back her cards??? But…why!?  
  
“That just about wraps things up here,” said Madame Magda, gathering up the cards none-the-wiser to Alix’s inner monologue. “If you wish to cause your enemy chaos, you need to have faith, be unpredictable, don’t give up, explore the unknown, and embrace your mistakes.”  
  
There was that ‘unknown’ again. Alix pushed her stool back a little and stretched. She wasn’t about to let that go. “Wow,” she said. “My friends told me that your cards were always right, but I didn’t believe them. I do now though. Are they magic?”  
  
Madame Magda fanned the cards out and didn’t speak for a moment. “It’s funny,” she said finally. “No one has ever asked me that before. I guess they all assume it’s a secret, but I’m more than happy to share. Are you interested in knowing how they work?”  
  
“Yeah. Kinda.”  
  
The woman laughed, apparently seeing through Alix’s casual facade. “It isn’t witchcraft if that’s what you’re thinking. The deck is simply a non-linear object. It is removed from the timestream, and thus can ‘see’ the past, present, and future all at once.”  
  
“So, if someone were to—hypothetically, of course—steal your cards, they would ‘see’ it coming?”  
  
“Indeed! These cards would only get stolen if I allowed them to get stolen.”  
  
“And is there any reason why you might allow something like that to happen?”  
  
The woman’s face went slack as she carefully considered her answer. “I suppose…to gather information.”  
  
“And how would the deck do that!? It might be a non-linear object, but it’s still an object. It’s inert.”  
  
“Let me put it this way, darling. If I gave you the deck, things would end up differently than if I just kept it, right?”  
  
“But you’re talking about the Ripple Effect! No one would notice that change except—”  
  
Alix cut herself off before she could finish. Me. She was going to say, ‘me.’ As the holder of the Rabbit Miraculous, she was a non-linear person. She unstuck herself from her present and moved about to the past and future using her Burrow. She was the only one she knew of who would’ve noticed the change in the timeline, a change that she was quickly realizing had been deliberate.  
  
“What would you even need to gather information for, Mags?” Alix wondered, abruptly changing tracks.  
  
Madame Magda’s left eye widened and the skin above it wrinkled, her version of a raised eyebrow. Without another word, she began to sift through the deck, pulling out three cards. She arranged them on the table and Alix realized it was the same spread Madame Magda had been looking at when Alix had first entered the shop: A man with a headband and orange robes, an upside-down queen, and The Devil.  
  
“This is my Identifying a Force of Darkness Spread,” Madame Magda explained. “I am trying to find it so I can stop it.”  
  
“And you would give up your cards to do that?”  
  
There wasn’t even an ounce of hesitation in the woman’s voice. “Absolutely.”  
  
 _If word about these cards got out, then the biggest baddies around are going to come out of the woodwork to get them_ , reasoned Alix. _Whoever ends up with the deck will be caught red-handed!_  
  
It wasn’t a bad plan, but there seemed like there was so much that could go wrong. Alix herself, for example. She had mucked up Madame Magda’s plan by taking the cards away from Lila.  
  
But the cards knew that was going to happen…  
  
And Mini-Bug’s Lucky Charm directed Alix back…  
  
So the cards could tell her themselves…  
  
 _Have faith. Embrace folly. Achieve chaos.  
  
Let Lila keep the cards.  
  
Her weakness will be her own undoing._  
  
Madame Magda could wait. Right now, Alix knew of a way to get time moving forward again and was desperate to try it. She jumped up, causing the curtains around her to sway.  
  
“Thanks Mags! I think I figured it out.”  
  
The woman had teeth for days as she smiled and clasped her hands together. “That’s wonderful to hear, darling. I’m glad I could be of service to you.”  
  
Alix was out the door and running back in the direction of the hotel before the tarot reader could even finish speaking. Fluff rooted around in Alix’s armpit and then climbed up under her collar, popping out by her ear.  
  
“Which ‘when’ are we going to?” the Kwami wondered.  
  
“Back,” Alix said.

* * *

Alix Kubdel was practicing her backwards roller-skating in Gallery 77 on the first floor in the Denon wing. It was her favorite place to be once the Louvre closed. It was long. It had two lanes. It had _Liberty Leading the People_ in it, which was a baller painting. There really wasn’t much more Alix could hope for in a homemade skating rink.  
  
She finished her loop and looked at her smart watch.  
  
“Ugh! Still too slow!” she said. She was never going to beat Kim backwards at this rate.  
  
Very suddenly, a portal appeared and out stepped her future self. Something was off about her though—her bunny suit was slightly transparent, revealing her punk clothes beneath.  
  
“Hey Mini-Me,” she said, marching up to Alix. She shoved a deck of tarot cards into Alix’s hand. “An Akuma is going to come looking for that in about 26 seconds. Just stay right there and offer them to her, okay?”  
  
“Um…”  
  
“Don’t. Move. Got it? Cool.” She backed away into her portal, giving a one-fingered salute. “Later, skater.” She vanished and the portal snapped shut.  
  
Alix stood there blinking, unable to comprehend what had just happened. She didn’t even mean to follow her future self’s directions. By the time she even thought about moving though, there was a rumble, and a giant scythe came cutting through the wall as easily as if it were made of butter. An Akuma stepped through the now smoking hole, a knight in black armor wearing a skull mask.  
  
“Alix Kubdel!” shouted the Akuma, a chick apparently, judging by the lilt in her voice. She levitated her giant scythe before her with one hand outstretched. The other hand was clutching something to her chest. “Hand over my cards!”  
  
“Uh. Yeah. No problem.” Alix held out the deck in an open palm. “Love the aesthetic,” she couldn’t help but say as the Akuma dismissed her scythe into the ether and marched towards her. “Very metal.”  
  
It all happened so fast. The moment the Akuma grabbed the cards, another portal appeared right next to them. Chat Noir leaned out of it, his black-gloved hand bubbling with noxious darkness, a telltale sign of Cataclysm. He touched whatever the Akuma was holding in her other hand and it fell away into ash, leaving behind a black and purple butterfly.  
  
“No…! No!” cried the Akuma as her armor and mask got stripped away. Underneath it she was a skinny gold-skinned girl with long white hair in a white toga. Definitely less impressive than the death knight.  
  
Chat Noir stepped the rest of the way out of the portal, Ladybug following him.  
  
“No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma!” she cried. “Time to de-evilize!”  
  
Ladybug swung her yo-yo about and threw it at the butterfly, capturing it. Opening her yo-yo back up, she released it, now purified.  
  
“Bye-bye, butterfly!” she said, waving it goodbye. She then took the red and black polka dotted teapot she had in her other hand and threw it into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”  
  
The teapot exploded, the pink sparks turning into a swarm of ladybugs as they fixed the hole in the wall the gallery and turned the pile of ash into another deck of tarot cards. Apparently, there were two. Alix wondered why the Akuma needed a second set when she apparently already had one.  
  
“Pound it!” chorused Ladybug and Chat Noir as they bumped fists.  
  
The Akuma fell to her knees, a transformative cloud of dark purple energy roiling around her, reverting her back to who she was.  
  
“Lila…?” recognized Alix, tilting her head.  
  
Alix’s future self came out of the portal, her superhero suit solid. Alix questioned her own memory. Maybe the suit hadn’t been transparent before. Maybe she had just been seeing things.  
  
“Look, Mini-Bug! You did it!” said her adult self. “C’mon, I’ll take you guys back where I found you.” She looked over Ladybug’s shoulder at Alix. “You got Lila, right, Mini Me?”  
  
It was funny, but Alix could’ve sworn her future self said LIE-la. She shrugged, digging earwax out of her ear. “Yeah. Sure.”  
  
“Sweet. Well, take care. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”  
  
The three superheroes entered the portal and it disappeared, leaving Alix alone with a groaning Lila who was just coming around. Alix skated over to her classmate and helped her to her feet.  
  
“Dude, you are not gonna _believe_ what just happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Enemy Spread
> 
> https://tarot-card-igans.tumblr.com/post/182432062523/enemy-is-a-strong-word-but-sometimes-people-just


	12. The Hanged Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so even though this chapter has a reading, it's going to be different than most since the focus really isn't on the cards per say, but the conversation they can produce. I thought it was very interesting. Plus, I love finding new spreads that fit characters specifically! Even if it's done with Marinette's run-of-the-mill deck, there's always lots to explore!
> 
> I'm going to give the shoutout to Sarcastic_Black_Cat this time! Leaving comments isn't for everyone, and that's okay. I always enjoy a good kudos and a bookmark too. Thanks for appreciating my work and looking forward to more!

Marinette managed to conceal herself behind some bushes just as her power ran out, Tikki getting ejected from her left earring. She caught the Kwami in one hand as she fished a chocolate chip cookie out of her purse with the other.  
  
“That was a close one, huh?” she said as Tikki munched. “If Bunnix hadn’t been around, everything would’ve been stuck in that loop forever! …But I guess it was kind of Bunnix’s fault in the first place for stealing from Lila…” Marinette paused. “I wonder what it was. She never did tell us.”  
  
“I don’t think she could,” reasoned Tikki. “You know she has to keep things secret to preserve time.”  
  
“Time…!” cried Marinette, pulling out her phone to check it. “C’mon!” she told her Kwami. “If we hurry, we can make it to _Voyance_ before it closes.”  
  
Tikki phased into Marinette’s purse as the girl jumped out of the bush, scaring a small child and her mother, and causing a biker to yell and swerve to avoid her. He ran into a postbox and cast her a glare over his shoulder.  
  
“Sorry! Sorry…” said Marinette as she shuffled backwards, away from the awkward situation. As soon as the biker turned around, she took off at a mad dash.  
  
She was a little disheartened to arrive at _Voyance_ to find it already closed, but, according to her phone, she still had three minutes. She stepped up to the door and hesitantly knocked on the large gold spot.  
  
“Madame Magda?” she called out. She knocked again, a little louder.  
  
There was a robust click and the door swung open, revealing a joyous Madame Magda. She was decked in a fuchsia kimono that was clearly inspired by Frida Kahlo—lots of skulls, flowers, and unibrowed eyes. In her black headscarf gathered on the top of her heads were fake flowers affixed with butterfly pins. Madame Magda leaned into the theme with her makeup too, natural but with a dark red lip.  
  
“I thought that sounded like you, Marinette!” she said, ushering Marinette inside. “Come in, come in. I was just helping your friend.”  
  
“Friend?” wondered Marinette.  
  
A slight figured peeked around Madame Magda with almond-shaped eyes. “Marinette. It is a pleasure to see you.”  
  
“Kagami!” said Marinette warmly as Madame Magda closed the door with a soft thump.  
  
“I closed up shop a little early to assist Miss Tsurugi in selecting a gift for Mr. Agreste—the younger, of course,” the woman explained.  
  
Sure enough, there was a shopping bag clutched in Kagami’s hands.  
  
“Ms. Magda tells me your tarot training has gone well,” said Kagami. “Have you been able to use your skills to put that lying liar who lies in her place?”  
  
“Er…”  
  
Marinette didn’t know what to say. She hung her head.  
  
“Such a response does not bode well,” observed Kagami. “What happened?”  
  
“Nathalie had Lila and I over today, to see who was the better reader. Lila stole my phone and snuck into my house to change all my clocks to make sure I was late though!”  
  
“Goodness!” cried Madame Magda, clutching her bosom.  
  
“So she rattled you so you would give a poor performance…” assumed Kagami.  
  
“N-no. At least, I don’t think so,” said Marinette. “I think she wanted me to be late so she could go first and…do something.”  
  
“Do something.”  
  
“I don’t know what it was or how to prove it, but Lila cheated.”  
  
“Perhaps…” said Kagami slowly. “Or perhaps your abilities aren’t where they need to be. Give me a reading and I will judge for myself.”  
  
Marinette was a little wounded by Kagami’s blunt words, but she knew the girl meant well. And maybe she had a point. All Marinette did was practice on herself, Tikki, Luka, and her parents. Maybe that hadn’t been the best course of action since they were all overly-supportive to a fault.  
  
“Spoken like a true Queen of Swords, wouldn’t you say, Marinette?” said Madame Magda with a showy wink. “Why don’t you use the reading nook while I close up shop for the night? My treat!”  
  
“The reading nook?” wondered Kagami, eyes roving about the shop before they fell on the roped off area between the two bookcases in the back. She turned back to Marinette, suddenly eager. “Ah! Yes. That sounds…fun! Shall we?”  
  
Marinette giggled. Her new friend was adorable. It was like watching a baby duckling experience water for the first time every time she attempted something she knew her mother would disapprove. “Sure!”  
  
Kagami carefully removed the sign, placing it gently on an open spot on one of the display tables, then unfastened the gold rope, looping it back so it was out of the way. She gathered one curtain and pushed it behind it’s hook, and then the other. It was all very precise and fastidious.  
  
“So, what did you get Adrien?” Marinette wondered, making conversation while Kagami did this.  
  
“That is a surprise,” said Kagami.  
  
“What’s it for?”  
  
Kagami paused to think. “That is also a surprise,” she said, as if she had decided so on the spot.  
  
The two of them took their places around the table only for Marinette to realize too late that Kagami had opted for Madame Magda’s usual seat, the seat of the reader. Or did it not matter? Marinette had no clue and was too embarrassed to say anything. She didn’t want to make Kagami move. Instead, she busied herself by pulling out her deck.  
  
“Thanks again for getting me these,” she said, not for the first time. “Is that what you got Adrien? His own deck?”  
  
“You really ought to focus, Marinette.”  
  
“Right! Right. Um…” Marinette slipped her cards out of their package and began to shuffle them. “You’ve been read before, right?”  
  
“Never. This would be my first time.”  
  
“Really!?”  
  
Kagami raised an eyebrow. “Why do you sound so surprised?”  
  
“I thought…well, I mean…you know Madame Magda, and you and Adrien got me these cards and—”  
  
“Oh. I can see the confusion. No, I actually find tarot to be complete nonsense, but I thought I would help you out. That is what friends do, do they not?”  
  
“Of course! And I appreciate you letting me do your first reading. But I think you’re not being fair, dismissing tarot like that. Readings are really just guidance and advice.”

Kagami kept quiet, but she had a sour look on her face that said it all.  
  
Marinette laughed. “Really!” she insisted. “Here, how about this? I came across a spread the other day that I think would be perfect for you. It’s called ‘The Forever Friendship Spread.’ I think it might help you build more friendships. But I want you to ignore the cards, okay? Just think of this as a conversation between you and me.”  
  
“Interesting…” said Kagami.  
  
Marinette offered her the cards. “You just gotta shuffle these first.”  
  
Kagami did as instructed. It came as no surprise that she was very skilled. Fencing, archery, gymnastics, ice skating and now, shuffling cards—when it came to any physical activity, it seemed like Kagami exceled. It was social activities where she struggled, despite her best intentions.  
  
After a flawless waterfall, Kagami handed the cards back and Marinette got to work laying down the nine-card spread. One card, another on top of it but tilted to the side, two below, one on either side of the first two cards, and three on top. Kagami observed with interest, but then looked up suddenly.

“Oh. That’s right. You said to ignore the cards,” she said, her intense stare focused on Marinette’s face instead. Marinette had difficulty maintaining eye contact.  
  
“Um. Yeah.” She hadn’t meant literally, but whatever helped Kagami.  
  
This was going to be a strange reading.  
  
“Let’s talk about the state of your friendships in general,” Marinette suggested, lifting the card in Position 1 so the card in Position 2 slid off the back of it. She turned it over to find a grim face of a young ruler staring up at her, dark circles beneath his eyes as he gripped a large pentacle in his hands.  
  
 _Okay, Four of Pentacles,_ she told herself. Possessiveness. Blocked change. Control.  
  
“What is there to say?” wondered Kagami. “I am friends with you, and I am…friends with Adrien.”  
  
Marinette’s heart broke a little. She knew Kagami didn’t have a lot of friend, but still only two? And her and Kagami hardly saw each other as it was.  
  
“Is it difficult to share us?” Marinette wondered.  
  
Kagami didn’t even need to think twice. “Yes,” she said. “I even find it difficult to share you with Adrien and Adrien with you, even though I know you two are also friends.”  
  
“Why is that?”  
  
“Right now, everything works. There is balance. If something were to change, I am afraid that would no longer be the case. I might…lose one of you.”  
  
Marinette knew Kagami was being diplomatic to her face, but she knew the truth since she heard it from the girl herself as Ladybug. While Kagami didn’t want to hurt Marinette, she also wanted to be with Adrien and didn’t want to give him up, even though she knew Marinette liked him too.  
  
Not wanting to dwell on this thought, Marinette turned over the next card. A woman in white, looking very much like Kagami, sat blindfolded in front of the sea. She had a pair of swords crossed in front of her chest.  
  
 _The Two of Swords_ , thought Marinette. Blocked emotions. Stalemate. Avoidance. Whenever it came up, it made her think of her very first reading, the Love Celtic Cross Madame Magda had done for her. It represented something beyond her control, some barrier she didn’t understand that kept her from being with Adrien. But this was about Kagami, not her. It was about Kagami and her main challenge in maintaining healthy friendships. And, thanks to the Four of Pentacles, which was a reinforcing card to the Two of Swords, Marinette knew the focus was on stalemate and blockage.  
  
“Is it difficult to be friends with people?” she asked Kagami.  
  
“It is when you have a mother like mine. You’ve experienced it yourself. She blocks most of my attempts.”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
Marinette would never forget the time she answered Kagami’s phone only to find Ms. Tsurugi on the other end. When the woman demanded to know who Marinette was, she introduced herself as Kagami’s friend.  
  
 _Kagami doesn’t have any friends_ , Ms. Tsurugi said with extreme certainty.  
  
“She’s trying to protect me,” explained Kagami. “She thinks friendships only lead to disappointment. But I disagree.”  
  
“So you’re in a stalemate.”  
  
“Yes. Exactly. I had to take drastic measures to befriend you, but I thought it worth the risk. Like a lunge in fencing. It is a decisive strike to be sure, but it leaves you open if you fail. I didn’t intend to fail though.”  
  
Marinette grew thoughtful. “That’s not a bad analogy for maintaining healthy friendships, actually,” she said. “Friends need to be open with each other. It allows for deeper connection, but at the risk of being vulnerable.”  
  
“Are you suggesting I’m not being open with you?”  
  
“N-no!” It was a knee-jerk response since Marinette didn’t want to hurt her friend, but it wasn’t the truth. “I mean…yes? I mean—”  
  
Kagami’s eyebrows knotted. “You are a strange one, Marinette. Why don’t you just say what you mean?”  
  
“You’re very honest, Kagami, and that’s great. But I think you hide things because you’re afraid to admit to any weaknesses. Like when we were doing the Friendship Game. You could’ve just told me, ‘Hey, I have trouble making friends, so I downloaded this app to help me.’ Instead, when I saw you looking at your phone a lot, I thought you were texting…er, other people the entire time.”  
  
“I see.” The girl dipped her head, staring into her lap. “I wanted to succeed at forming a friendship, so I thought the app would give me an advantage. But I was ashamed I needed help and I didn’t want you to think me…odd.”  
  
“You are odd,” said Marinette, causing her friend to flinch, but she continued. “And I’m odd. And it’s okay. No one is perfect. I know you hold yourself up to a really high standard, but when you do that in a friendship with someone, you block yourself off from really connecting with them.”  
  
“I am viewed as unapproachable.”  
  
Marinette didn’t want to admit it, but there was a time not too long ago when she thought of Kagami as an ice queen. If only she had known then what she did now—that Kagami wasn’t cold or aloof, just inexperienced with making friends and afraid to admit it.  
  
“It’s okay to have weaknesses,” explained Marinette, eyeing the third card. It was, naturally, about weaknesses. “Doesn’t mean we can’t improve though, right? You’ve become pretty comfortable around me and Adrien.”  
  
Kagami perked up. “I also enjoyed meeting your band friends. What was that blue-haired boy’s name again? Luka?”  
  
At the mention of Luka’s name, Marinette felt her cheeks burn a little. Her head was still a swirling mess when she thought of him. She enjoyed his attention and appreciated his willingness to wait for her to move forward with their relationship, but she still didn’t know what to do. She was in love with Adrien, after all, and those feelings weren’t going to suddenly vanish.  
  
“Hey, we’re talking about _you_ here,” Marinette reminded Kagami, who couldn’t help but look slightly amused.  
  
Marinette moved down to the bottom row and flipped the card in Position 3, revealing a man carrying ten sticks. They looked unwieldy and difficult to carry. Marinette frowned. So, this was Kagami’s weakness in her friendship.  
  
 _The Ten of Wands_ , Marinette thought. Overextending. Burdens. Struggle. _Oh, Kagami…_  
  
“You don’t really have time for friendships, do you?” she asked.  
  
Kagami looked off to the left. “School, fencing, and attending social functions with my mother take up most of my time.” Back to Marinette. “That’s why I was so pleased to meet Adrien, since he is the same. Our paths cross often, so it is easy to be with him.”  
  
“What about spending time with me? Would you say it’s a struggle?”  
  
“Considering I had to fight an Akuma just to have an orange juice with you, I think that would be putting it lightly.”  
  
Marinette couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of life in Paris, eliciting a small smile from Kagami. As Marinette wiped a tear from her eye though, she grew thoughtful and quiet.  
  
“You juggle so much stuff,” Marinette noted. “I always feel kind of bad when we hang out since I know you’re shirking your responsibilities for me. Skipping fencing practice, sneaking out of parties—”  
  
“Nonsense, Marinette,” interjected Kagami. “I do it for me. When I’m with you, I can finally relax. In fact, I wish I could spend more time with you, but that simply isn’t possible. The wishes of my mother often go above my own because the honor of my family rides on me.” She paused here, her voice growing soft. “You are lucky, you know. To be the daughter of bakers. You aren’t under constant scrutiny.”  
  
 _But Ladybug is_ , thought Marinette, tucking some hair behind her ear. But she didn’t dare say that to her friend. “That’s gotta be tough,” she said instead. “But you’ve got a lot of strengths as a friend too.”  
  
She turned over the next card but didn’t like what she saw. A sullen man, arms crossed, sitting beneath a palm tree. He ignored the cup he was being offered and the three at his feet.  
  
 _The Four of Cups isn’t really a positive card_ , thought Marinette. Self-Absorption. Apathy. Going within. These were Kagami’s strengths as a friend? Still, Marinette had come across this card herself when she did her first self-reading. It was her future opportunity—to take time for herself. And hadn’t Kagami just been talking about that?  
  
“It’s like you said before,” said Marinette. “You think friendships are worth the risk. For most people, the risk of making friends isn’t that high. But, for you, it is. Yet you still want to make friends. That means a lot to me, to see and hear how much you value friendship. You really care, Kagami. And you know what? I can relate. I know you might not think it, but I’m under a lot of pressure too. I can’t say no when people ask me to do stuff and I take on way too much. It’s difficult for me to make time for friends too.”  
  
Kagami’s eyes widened. “Really!?”  
  
“But friendships are important to me. And they are equally important to you. That’s why we both work so hard to make time for our friends.” Marinette paused as something occurred to her. “You know, I think we’re more alike than we realize.”  
  
“Perhaps in that regard,” said Kagami slowly. “But not in others. Friendships seem to come easy to you, Marinette. Look at how many friends you have.”  
  
Marinette eyed the card in Position 5. “You can totally grow your circle of friends, Kagami! You just need to avoid something.”  
  
“What?”  
  
Flipping the card over revealed a hodgepodge of boys hitting each other with sticks. Despite how serious all the combatants looked, the colors of their outfits and their untrained swings made their fight seem rather comical.  
  
 _Five of Wands_ , thought Marinette. Disagreement. Competition. Hassles. _This is an easy one_ , she realized.  
  
“I know you’re a very competitive person, Kagami, and that’s good when you’re fencing. But not for friendships,” explained Marinette.  
  
The girl reared back, blinking. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”  
  
“I noticed when we were playing the Friendship Game that you seemed to equate winning the game to becoming friends with me, but friendship isn’t some competition you can win.”  
  
“Of course it is. You win by becoming friends. Friendship is just like fencing. If you preform the correct action at the correct time—”  
  
“I didn’t become friends with you because you did everything right. I became friends with you because you were interested in forming a friendship. And just look at me. I did everything wrong, badmouthing you to Alya like I did, and you still became friends with me.”  
  
“You covered for me to my mother…or at least tried to. No one’s ever done that for me before.”  
  
“Oh, that? That’s just what friends do. They’re there for each other.” Marinette gave her words further thought. “Friendship is cooperation, not competition.”  
  
“How so?”  
  
“You can’t force someone to become friends with you. It’s a choice on both sides. You simply offer it up and hope they do the same.”  
  
Kagami seemed to physically deflate. “So…there is no way to guarantee success?”  
  
Marinette swallowed a laugh. “No,” she said kindly instead. “But you can help your chances. Be less competitive and more…” Her hand drifted over to the card on the opposite side of the spread and turned it over to reveal a golden sarcophagus of a knight situated beneath a stained-glass window. The tomb was etched with a sword, three more carved into a relief on the wall.  
  
 _This is the Four of Swords_ , thought Marinette. Rest. Contemplation. Quiet preparation. It opposed Kagami’s weakness as a friend—the overexerting, the taking on too much—and reinforced her strength as a friend—the thought she put into her friendships, the time she spent for her and not for her mother. Kagami needed to be less competitive and more…  
  
“Relaxed,” suggested Marinette.  
  
“Relaxed,” repeated Kagami, as if the word were foreign. Her head dropped again.  
  
“Er…Yeah! You know, don’t put so much pressure on yourself or other people when it comes to making friendships.”  
  
Kagami continued to stare furiously into her lap. “How do I do this?”  
  
“Well, before you try to make a friend, take a moment for yourself. Think about why you want to be friends with this person in the first place and what friendship means to you. And then…don’t force anything. If they’re receptive to being friends with you—and I don’t see why not, you’re awesome—then cool! If not, there is no shame in moving on. It’s not your loss. It’s theirs!”  
  
It took a moment, but eventually Kagami’s head popped back up again to look at Marinette. “You act as if I have the opportunity to make friends on a daily basis.”  
  
 _Oh! Perfect timing!_ thought Marinette as she went to the only untouched row of cards and turned over the one in Position 7. It was supposed to show where Kagami could find new friends.  
  
The grizzled Emperor glared up at her. It was Kagami’s first card in the major arcana, so Marinette knew it was crucial she got it right.  
  
 _Okay, okay, The Emperor_ , she thought. Fathering. Structure. Authority. Regulation. It reinforced the very first card in the spread, the Four of Pentacles that described the current state of Kagami’s friendships with Marinette and Adrien. The focus was on control, structure, and order. That sounded like Kagami’s life, if Marinette were being honest.  
  
Wait a second…  
  
“But you do!” Marinette pointed out excitedly. “What about the kids on your fencing team?”  
  
“My…? Those are rivals, not friends.”  
  
“What about Adrien?”  
  
“Adrien is…different.”  
  
Marinette didn’t want to push it and switched tracks. “Let’s be honest—you need to work within the confines of your life to find friends, and you did that with Adrien. And I guess me, considering how many parties you go to where my parents are the caterers and I end up helping. But organized sports are like a built-in friend group if you’d just reach out to your teammates.”  
  
Kagami tapped a finger to the side of her mouth as she looked up in thought. “Hmm. Your idea has merit.” She looked down. “I will think about it.”  
  
“And while you’re thinking about it,” said Marinette, flipping the next card. “Can I suggest what kind of friend to look for next?”  
  
“You may.”  
  
Tilting her head, Marinette’s mind worked furiously to identify the latest card in the spread. It was a busy city gate. An elderly man sat with his two dogs. Two figures conversed. A child was reaching around his mother’s robes to pet one of the dogs. Ten gold coins were superimposed over the scene.  
  
 _The Ten of Pentacles_ , she thought. Affluence. Permanence. Convention. Like the Emperor before it, it also reinforced the Four of Pentacles, but this time it highlighted the status quo and conserving aspect.  
  
“You might want to find someone who is like Adrien,” Marinette suggested. “Someone who is in your social set who shares your interests and has your mother’s approval. That way, it won’t be difficult to spend time with them. It might even have the added benefit of convincing your mom that you making friends isn’t a bad thing and she’ll be more open to you expanding your circle to other people who…um…might be outside her comfort zone.”  
  
“I agree my mother is an obstacle to my friendships, a mountain that must be worn down over time by an elusive wind.” Kagami raised a fist and looked up at the tented ceiling as she made her vow. “I shall be that wind!” She paused and looked back at Marinette. “Thank you for the advice, friend. I will remember these things.”  
  
She started to rise from her seat, but there was one card still left on the table.  
  
“W-wait!” said Marinette. “…I have…one more piece of advice?”  
  
Kagami plopped back down, ready to listen, so Marinette proceeded to flip the last card. On it, a rich man held a pair of scales. Two poor men begged at his feet, but he was only giving money to one of them.  
  
 _Of course it had to be the Six of Pentacles,_ thought Marinette, a little flustered. It was one of the most versatile and confusing cards in the deck.  
  
“Hold on. This is gonna take me a minute,” Marinette told her friend.  
  
Kagami tilted her head to the side. “Perhaps I can be of service? It is as you said. Friends are there for each other. Let us cooperate.”  
  
“But you don’t believe in tarot.”  
  
“But I believe in you.”  
  
Marinette grinned, feeling a brightness well up in her chest. She pushed the Six of Pentacles towards Kagami.  
  
“Okay! So, this is the Six of Pentacles. It’s supposed to tell us what you and your new friend can do together or bond over,” she explained.  
  
Kagami stared at it. “Give money to the poor?” she guessed.  
  
“It’s not so literal. The picture is just supposed to help you remember what the card means. See how the rich man holds the scales of justice? It gives him the right to decide who deserves something and who doesn’t. One man is receiving plenty while the other is lacking. Having and not having. See? And it’s telling that it’s money that he’s giving. Money is a resource that can result in knowledge and power. Some people have it, while others don’t.”  
  
“So the card means six different things: Having resources, having knowledge, having power, not having resources, not having knowledge, and not having power.”  
  
“Yes! And we need to figure out where our focus should be.”  
  
“I think we can eliminate the ‘not having.’ My family is very affluent.”  
  
“Uh…maybe let’s narrow it down using the other cards on the table first?”  
  
“Interesting…” Kagami’s eyes roved about the spread, seeing it for the first time. “Proceed.”  
  
“There are two cards that can reinforce or oppose the Six of Pentacles.”  
  
Kagami’s hand shot out and she stabbed the Ten of Pentacles with her pointer finger. “Is this one of the cards?”  
  
“Er. Yeah.”  
  
She grew smug. “I thought so. They look similar. They both have those gold circles with the stars all over them.”  
  
“The Ten of Pentacles means affluence, among other things.”  
  
“Then I was right. We should focus on having resources. My new friend and I can bond over how much money we have and perhaps…go shopping?”  
  
“Uh…I think it’s just highlighting what I was saying earlier about the kind of friend you should look for—someone who knows what it’s like to be in your position. Having lots of money is great, but it’s not without its difficulties, right? You’re lonely. Your life is very controlled. You’re under a lot of pressure.” Marinette scooted forward the Ten of Wands. “This is the other reinforcing or opposing card, the one that focuses on the lack of time you have for friendships. You might have a lot of things, Kagami, but something you don’t have is a lot of free time.”  
  
“That’s true…” agreed Kagami, albeit grudgingly. “I see this man is carrying many heavy sticks. I feel as if I am also carrying a heavy burden.”  
  
“It’s difficult to maintain friendships when you don’t have a lot of time for them. I think that’s one of the reasons why you are friends with me and Adrien. We’re all in the same boat. We try so hard to spend time with our friends, but it doesn’t always work. And that’s okay. All three of us understand and don’t take it personally when one of us has to cancel, and we make the most out of the time we do have together.”  
  
“Like at Mr. And Mrs. Bourgeois’s wedding anniversary party! I’ve never had so much fun in my life! It’s a shame you had to leave so early, but I suppose it couldn’t be helped. Your parents were counting on you to find those cocktail umbrellas.”  
  
That wasn’t why Marinette left, but what could she say? That she was in love with Adrien but thought Kagami and Adrien made a better couple, especially since Marinette felt incapable of telling Adrien how she felt, so she stepped aside in order to give her friend a chance?  
  
Her and Kagami really were quite similar, hiding things from one another.  
  
“Uh-huh!” she said instead, her voice breaking a little as she nodded her head vigorously, but Kagami didn't seem to notice. She was too busy staring down into her lap again.

The two of them sat in what Marinette felt was an uncomfortable silence. Eventually, Kagami lifted her head.  
  
“Are we done?” she asked.  
  
“Uh. Yeah,” said Marinette.  
  
Kagami raised her hand, revealing her phone. It dawned on Marinette that the girl had been on it the entire time. Had the reading bored her? Had she been texting Adrien the whole time, telling him how awful the reading was?  
  
 _No, no, wait,_ Marinette told herself. _You don't want to make the same mistake you did last time._  
  
“I have compiled your wisdom,” Kagami explained, alleviating Marinette's fears in just five words. “Now that we are finished, I would like to share.” She held up her fingers as she counted. “Number one. Be open and honest about my weaknesses in my current friendships. Number two. Be less competitive and more relaxed when forming new friendships. Number three. When approaching someone for friendship, I should pause and take a moment to reflect. Number four. I need to offer friendship, not win it. Number five. I should strive to befriend someone on my fencing team. Subset A. That person should be wealthy and approved by my mother. Subset B. They should be lonely, lack free time, and be under a lot of pressure.”  
  
“Er…”  
  
Kagami wasn’t wrong, per say, but Marinette was glad when Madame Magda’s booming voice cut through her struggle to put together a response.  
  
“How are we doing, darlings?” the woman asked as she poked her head into the nook. “Almost done? I’m ready to lock up, but if you need more time…”  
  
Kagami stood up. “We just finished. It is as you said, Madame Magda. Marinette is well trained. If Lila won, it must be because she cheated.”  
  
“I believe you are correct.”  
  
“But how did she cheat?” wondered Marinette, gathering up her cards and sliding them back into their packaging.  
  
Madame Magda tilted her head to one side, concerned. “Does it matter?”  
  
“Yes!” both girls insisted at the same time.  
  
This made the woman guffaw. “Sometimes in life…you just have to let things go.”  
  
“Unacceptable!” cried Kagami, nearly tripping over her stool as she marched out of the nook. “Those who do wrong should not be allowed to get away with the things they have done!”  
  
“You misunderstand me, Miss Tsurugi. Letting things go and ignoring them are two very different things,” the woman pointed out. “I’m sure Marinette will continue to monitor the situation, but sometimes the best approach to a problem is not always the most obvious one. When we most want to force our will on someone, that is when we should release. When we most want to have our own way, that is when we should sacrifice. When we most want to act, that is when we should wait.”  
  
“I see. A defensive strategy. We wait for Lila to make a mistake.”  
  
“Exactly. Those who lie and cheat are emboldened by their success. Pride comes before the fall, as they say.”  
  
“But it feels like all my training was for nothing!” complained Marinette, joining the other two outside the nook.  
  
Madame Magda looked wounded by these words. “Do you honestly believe that, darling?”  
  
Marinette paused. She had spoken out of turn in the heat of the moment. Now that Madame Magda directed her to give it some further thought though, she hung her head.  
  
“No,” she admitted with a sigh. “I might have started learning tarot to stop Lila, but it’s really helped me strengthen my relationships with a lot of people. Adrien, Luka, Kagami, _you_ …people who matter to me.”  
  
Kagami and Madame Magda both beamed at her. It made Marinette realize something.  
  
“You know what?” she said, standing a little straighter. “I tried my best. I’m not ashamed. Lila can cheat all she wants—we all know she’s not a good tarot reader. It will catch up to her eventually.”  
  
“That’s right!” agreed Kagami with vehemence. “And when that day comes…we’ll be there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: The Forever Friendship Tarot Spread
> 
> https://angelorum.co/topics/divination/the-forever-friendship-tarot-spread/


	13. Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, hasn't it? I missed this little story. The problem was, every time I opened up this chapter to work on it, Word would crash. So I cut and pasted this chapter to a new document and...Word would crash again. I don't know what was up (maybe it was cursed because of the title?), but it made this chapter a bear to write because I had to save it every twelve seconds or else lose my progress (which also happened a lot). I also got an idea to write a Miraculous Ladybug version of A Christmas Carol over the holidays too, so I got sidetracked with that. But the chapter is finally done and now I can post it. Yay!
> 
> We have a new POV (at least in The Fool's Journey) and two readings (technically three--see bottom for notes)! Again, all the cards were chosen at random, though I did cheat a little with the first reading and only pulled at random from the Major Arcana.
> 
> The shoutout this time...Hmm...let's go with SwirlingDreams, because I like their handle and they gave me kudos! Again, I know comments are not for everyone, so I like to show love and appreciation for those who don't. I see you and I thank you for the glory, lol

The key was The Magician.  
  
Gabriel was sure of it. It was who he was. He just wasn’t…accessing his abilities to their fullest potential. That was the only explanation as to why his Akumas failed time and time again. So, he had young Miss Rossi preforming all sorts of Magician-based tarot spreads for him to illuminate the situation. The Magician Spread. Manifesting the Magician Spread. The Magician: Manifesting Magic Spread. Making Magic Spread. Unlocking Your Potential Spread.  
  
For whatever reason though, Miss Rossi was off her game lately, making assumptions and pushing the cards in odd directions that didn’t exactly match up with what Gabriel was seeing. They were arguing over the meanings of cards a lot more than usual. He wondered what was behind such a change. The deck was always right, but something about his reader had changed.  
  
“I have a request,” he said as he pocketed the deck after Miss Rossi completed her latest reading.  
  
“You just say the word, Mr. Agreste!” the girl chirruped with her obnoxious little lit.  
  
“The Repeating Card Tarot Spread. Have you heard of it?”  
  
“Oh, absolutely!”  
  
Gabriel doubted that was true, considering how many spreads there were in the world, but it would be simple enough for her to look it up. He’d rather her be prepared than for him to call her out on her lie. Let her think she had him fooled—he had always been wise to her game.  
  
“That is the spread I would like for tomorrow’s reading concerning The Magician,” he explained. “Can you manage?”  
  
“You wound me, Mr. Agreste,” said the girl, holding a hand to her chest as she faked sorrow. “Have I not proven myself to be a loyal and true tarot card reader?”  
  
She had proven herself to be a passable and easily manipulated tarot card reader, which was exactly what Gabriel had been hoping for when she offered him her services in the first place. She would not jeopardize her position with him, even if she were able to figure out some of his secrets. That didn’t look likely though. It was obvious to him that she still knew nothing of his double life, even with a deck of cards that was always right. She connected almost everything to his career or, at most, his personal life. If she was as good as she claimed, she would’ve figure him out and blackmailed him ages ago.  
  
“Indeed you have,” Gabriel told her with an amused smile. Miss Rossi had an ego the size of Eurasia. He found humor in fueling it. Pride came before the fall and, once she fell, she would make for a powerful Akuma yet again. “I know I have chosen my tarot card reader wisely. I will see you tomorrow, Miss Rossi. Same time, same place.”  
  
She pulled a face, her façade paper thin. “No dinner?”  
  
“Actually, I’ve arranged for you and Adrien to eat out tonight since he will be leaving for his fencing competition tomorrow. The car is waiting for you outside. I hope you…enjoy—”  
  
Miss Rossi was already gathering her things and rushing out the door, so Gabriel didn’t even bother finishing. Once she was gone, he scoffed. Who did the girl think she was fooling? She was too concerned about her own self to ever realize she was doing tarot readings for Hawk Moth.

* * *

Gabriel stared at the cards Miss Rossi had arranged in front of him. One was face up, The Magician in all his glory, his power and might granting him an unearthly glow. Below The Magician were three more card that remained a mystery for now as Miss Rossi prattled on and on about asking the _right_ kinds of questions and how there was something about The Magician that he simply wasn’t _seeing_. He motioned for her to hurry up. He wished to return to his Miraculous research as soon as possible.  
  
Miss Rossi reached for the first card in the row of three. “This card in Position 2—”  
  
“—Tells me what is blocking me from understanding The Magician,” said Gabriel tersely. “I am well aware of the semantics of the spread, Miss Rossi. I am the one who suggested it.”  
  
The girl recognized she was on thin ice, but also couldn’t seem to help herself. “Of course, Mr. Agreste! But what kind of reader would I be if I didn’t establish my deep knowledge of the spread as well? As I told you before, I’m very familiar with it. It’s one of my favorites, in fact.”  
  
Gabriel raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He didn’t want to hold up the reading any longer.  
  
Miss Rossi turned the card quickly to reveal the staunch figure of the armored Emperor, sitting on his throne.  
  
“It is the man I must let go of,” Gabriel observed dryly, thinking of the conversation he had with his future Two of Cups self.  
  
“Control,” acknowledged Miss Rossi. “Or, rather, the assumption of power and control. We’ve seen it before, as you mentioned. This card is detrimental to you, Mr. Agreste. Your need to regulate, to put everything into a neat little box—it’s keeping you from understanding The Magician.”  
  
“I suppose I could stand to be a little more…open-minded.”  
  
“But that’s not a trait of The Magician.”  
  
Gabriel paused. He did not like where this was going. “Your point?” he asked, voice dangerous. He took satisfaction in watching Miss Rossi squirm a little as she mentally prepared for what she wanted to say.  
  
“Are you actually The Magician, Mr. Agreste?” she asked. “Or do you just think that you are?”  
  
The words stung, but Gabriel was quick to pick up on the flaw of this logic. “The Emperor argues for order. For trains to run on time. For laws to be followed. For questions to have answers. Does it not seem more likely to you, then, that the reason I cannot understand The Magician is because I am attempting to put it into a box, like you so suggested? To define something that is, in a sense, undefinable? After all, it is difficult to grasp true power. We humans have a bad habit of…limiting it.”  
  
_I’m not thinking big enough_ , Gabriel realized. The Magician was more than him. Much more.  
  
“Keep going,” he commanded.  
  
Miss Rossi seemed torn, but eventually obliged. Gabriel leaned forward eagerly. This next card was going to show him how he could unblock and progress in his understanding of The Magician. This was the action he needed to take, the one that would solve his current problem.  
  
Flipping it revealed a young ruler with an unfortunate haircut, holding a sword in his right hand and a set of scales in his left.  
  
“Justice,” said Miss Rossi in a slightly hushed tone. “She carries the scales of equality and impartial judgment in one hand, and the sword of decision in the other. Justice is often a signal that you need to do what needs to be done.”  
  
“And that is…?”  
  
“Uh. Well.” The girl’s eyes darted back and forth as she examined the cards. “Justice and The Emperor are reinforcing cards. They both stand for universal order, but while The Emperor is concrete, Justice is more…um…abstract.”  
  
Gabriel felt the lines on his face deepen. “That doesn’t answer my questions, Miss Rossi.”  
  
“I’m just saying, if The Emperor is a wall keeping you from understanding The Magician, maybe you should take that wall down.”  
  
“Obviously if it blocks my understanding, it needs to be removed. But how do I go about doing so?”  
  
“You need to look at order in a different way. Become impartial. Judge yourself. Are you truly the Magician? Or are you perhaps someone—”  
  
There Miss Rossi went again. You’d think she turned over a completely different card by the way she was carrying on.  
  
“Since The Emperor reinforces Justice, we know exactly what Justice stands for in this case,” interrupted Gabriel. “Justice and regulations. Is that not true?”  
  
“Exactly right, Mr. Agreste!” praised Miss Rossi, switch tracks so fast it nearly made his head spin. “You must be judicious in how you deal with The Emperor. It is so ingrained in you that it will be a difficult stumbling block to remove. As for regulations, these would be different than the ones offered by The Emperor.”  
  
“I see your point. The Emperor rules over an empire. While an empire is impressive, it is small compared to the abstract concept of justice. We are speaking of regulations on a cosmic scale. Rules made and maintained by the universe itself rather than lowly man.”  
  
It was all becoming clear now. The Magician wasn’t him. At least…not yet. But it would be once he got his hands on the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, when he gained the powers of a god. Still, there was more to the situation than what first met the eye. Thankfully, the last card stood for hidden factors.  
  
“What’s in Position 4?” he asked before Miss Rossi could derail them again.  
  
She put her hand on it. “There’s been hints of the unconscious already, but this card will seek to answer the question, ‘What is something that is unseen that affects your perception of this message?’”  
  
Turning it over revealed a woman pouring out two jugs of water beneath a clear night sky.  
  
“The Star,” said Miss Rossi. “The Star represents hope in times of grief and despair. It gives us peace and inspires us to press on and give it our all, even when things look bleak.”  
  
Gabriel immediately thought of Emilie and how despondent he was in the wake of losing her. It was like wandering through an endless fog. Then, suddenly, there was hope—Nooroo telling him about the abilities of the earrings of the Ladybug and the ring of the Black Cat. With them, he could bring Emilie back.  
  
His mission was his Star, his guiding light in the encroaching darkness.  
  
Yes, this knowledge would affect his perception of The Magician, wouldn’t it? He wanted so badly to believe he was already The Magician since it would put him one step closer to his goal that he ignored all signs that pointed out that he wasn’t there yet. But there was an assurance in The Star as well. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. He just needed to have faith in the future.  
  
But he wasn’t about to tell Miss Rossi any of this.  
  
“Hope is a tricky thing,” said the girl, none-the-wiser. “It means we believe in something that has not yet come to pass, and maybe never will. It is an act that is in direct opposition to The Magician, who focuses on taking action—”  
  
“Is not hoping an action?” cut in Gabriel. “Is it not a conscious act? Is there not power in hope? I think The Star is very much in line with The Magician.”  
  
“Ah, well, there are a lot of unknowns in hope too. And it’s very…inward-facing.”  
  
“We aren’t discussing the Hermit here.”  
  
“No…we’re not,” conceded Miss Rossi. “But I think you might be going a little too far in connecting The Star with The Magician, especially with it being a hidden factor. The Magician is not about what is hidden.”  
  
Gabriel grimaced. “Fair point.”  
  
With the reading complete, Miss Rossi packed up her things and left for the night, leaving Gabriel to stew in his own thoughts, absentmindedly thumbing through his tarot cards and trying to pinpoint exactly what was bothering him.  
  
The cards were always right, yet how many readings did it take to figure out The Magician? And how many more would it take him to finally solve the riddle of how to get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses?  
  
Maybe it was time for him to seek out a second opinion.  
  
He went over to the art of Emilie, the one he had commissioned for her birthday. How beautiful she had been painted, and yet it hardly did her justice. He opened it and stowed the cards in the safe behind it. Then he went to grab his coat and hat before headed out the door. He had a brief thought to tell Nathalie where he was going but decided against it. She was still recovering. He didn’t want to upset her.  
  
“Master?” wondered Nooroo, phasing out a hiding. “What are you—?”  
  
“Silence,” insisted Gabriel. It was true he had not gone on a walk by himself since before he lost Emilie, but he didn’t need to answer to anyone, least of all his Kwami. “Return to where you were and do not coming out again until I summon you.”  
  
Nooroo vanished.  
  
The air was cool and there was a slight drizzle as Gabriel made his way across the square in front of his house toward the Seine. As he passed by a family on the bridge—father, mother, son—he caught himself staring and quickly lowered his hat. Did those fools know of their own happiness? He doubted it. They’d never know it until it was gone.  
  
He hurried on.  
  
Arriving beneath the colonnades of Rivoli Street, Gabriel grabbed his collar and shook raindrops off his coat. _Voyance_ was around here somewhere. He couldn’t remember exactly where, but it was not difficult to find. There were very few shops like it in all of Paris.  
  
He paused at the door as he arrived, recognizing it as the same one he had bashed in as Hawk Moth, but it had since been fixed with veins of gold. _Kintsugi_ , he realized. It was Japanese for ‘golden joinery.’ Sometimes it was known as kintsukuroi, or ‘golden repair.’ He marveled at the craftsmanship and briefly wondered who Madame Magda commissioned to get it done. They were a true artist and Gabriel couldn’t help but feel inspired. He shook the thought from his head though as he pushed his way inside. He had a mission. He would not be side-tracked.  
  
The shop was empty, not even Madame Magda and all her girth to greet him. A quick examination of the room led him to a sign on the check-out counter written in loopy but legible calligraphy: ‘In the back. Ring bell for assistance.’  
  
“This is no way to run a businesses,” Gabriel muttered to himself as he tapped the bell over and over again.  
  
The door to the back swung open and the proprietress appeared as if she were part of a magic act. The caftan she wore made her look like a Turkish rug, which she had matched with a boxy scarlet cap to cover her bald head. Her earrings appeared to be made from old-fashioned brass keys.  
  
“Mr. Agreste!” she said, pleasantly surprised. “To what do I owe the pleasure, darling?”  
  
“I am not your ‘darling,’” spit Gabriel. “And this isn’t pleasure. This is business.”  
  
As he spoke, there was a strangled yelp in the back room, followed by the sound of something crashing as boxes tumbled to the ground.  
  
“Hold on,” said Madame Magda smoothly as she went to open the door. It was difficult to see beyond the harsh fluorescents, but it looked like an ordinary storage room, which was disappointing to say the least. “Are you okay, darling?” the woman asked someone just inside.  
  
“Um. Yeah. I just…Is that Mr. Agreste outside?”  
  
The voice was familiar, but Gabriel was having trouble placing it.  
  
“Yes, indeed! Why don’t you come out and say hi?” suggested Madame Magda.  
  
“Oh, um, no, I-I…um…couldn’t—”  
  
But Madame Magda wouldn’t take no for an answer. She reached around and pulled a slight half-Asian girl out of the room as easily as if she were producing a rabbit out of a hat. Now that Gabriel could see her, he realized she was one of Adrien’s friends, the girl who won the fashion contest. The one Miss Rossi said was a bad influence on Adrien. She would’ve made a powerful Akuma had Nathalie not been overcome by the Peacock Miraculous.  
  
“Miss Marinette,” he said with a nod. It made a bit more sense now how his son found _Voyance_ in the first place. Marinette must’ve told him about it at school.  
  
The girl looked everywhere except at his face. “H-hello, Mr. Agreste, sir. It’s see you good.” Her face turned beet red and she covered her mouth with her hands.  
  
“We were just catching up in the back,” Ms. Magda explained, unfazed by Marinette’s awkwardness. “Now, Mr. Agreste, how may I help you today?”  
  
“It is a private matter,” he explained.  
  
“Well, it’s just you and us!” said the woman. “Go ahead.”  
  
“No, I mean…There is something I wish to discuss with you and you alone.”  
  
Ms. Magda’s brow wrinkled. “But why? Surely two minds are better than one.”  
  
“It concerns tarot.”  
  
“All the more reason for Marinette to stay! She is a protégé of mine. If you would like a reading, she would be more than happy to oblige.”  
  
Here Marinette squeaked like a pathetic little rodent. Despite his best efforts, Gabriel’s frustration began to bubble to the surface.  
  
“I don’t intend to be practice for some teenage girl,” he said, voice rising.  
  
“You wouldn’t be practice!” insisted Madame Magda. She turned to Marinette. “Would he, darling?”  
  
“N…no.” The girl closed her eyes and struggled to center herself. When she opened them, she seemed a bit more confident and regained proper use of her tongue. “Madame Magda has taught me everything she knows.”  
  
“That’s all well and good,” snitted Gabriel. “But you lack her experience.”  
  
“Then I shall assist,” suggested Madame Magda. “Because I am not giving readings at the moment.”  
  
Gabriel felt a blood vessel bulge in his forehead. “What!?” he cried  
  
Marinette drew back, but Madame Magda smiled at him pleasantly as if he had asked his question at a normal volume. “My heart hasn’t been in it ever since Hawk Moth stole my deck,” she explained.  
  
Gabriel’s blood ran cold, and his palms started to sweat. Was that a pointed statement? Did she know he was Hawk Moth? No. She couldn’t. That was absurd. _Just look at her face_ , he told himself. _She is simply stating a fact._ He forced himself to remain calm.  
  
“How unfortunate,” he told her, arranging his face into something akin to sorrow. “I know that deck meant a lot to you.”  
  
“No matter!” said the woman cheerfully. “It’s given me time to teach my craft to others.”  
  
“But what is the point if the cards aren’t always right?”  
  
“You sell tarot short, Mr. Agreste! The point of a reading isn’t to gain answers but understanding. By talking through your situation using the spread and the cards as a jumping-off point, you discover more about it and yourself. My old deck optimized the process, yes, but that doesn’t mean normal tarot has nothing to offer. Have Marinette read your cards and you’ll see.”  
  
Gabriel could see that there was no winning against Madame Magda. He considered offering her money to give him the reading but suspected no amount would tempt her. Besides, she wasn’t worth it. He was merely doing this to set his concerns about his recent readings at ease.  
  
“Very well,” he said, gesturing to the reading nook. “After you, ladies.”  
  
Marinette and Madame Magda made their way towards the curtain hanging between the two bookcases, whispering to one another. As they took their seats in the cramped space, Marinette barely fit alongside her teacher. Gabriel edged in after and planted himself on a stool, adjusting the lower half of his jacket and then his glasses.  
  
Marinette pulled a deck of tarot cards out of her purse. They were new, judging by the colors, but already well-loved since they were easy to shuffle.  
  
“How can I help you today, Mr. Agreste?” she asked, parroting Madame Magda as she handed the cards over to him.  
  
“I feel as if I have not made as much progress on an important project as I should have, considering the tools at my disposal,” he allowed himself to admit, splitting the deck and doing a riffle. “I want to know why.”  
  
The young girl perked up at these words. “I feel that way about my design work all the time too! I always give myself a Roadblock Reading when that happens.” She chanced a glance at Madame Magda, who smiled and nodded her head. Marinette turned back to Gabriel. “Is that a spread you would like me to read for you?”  
  
Gabriel finished shuffling and slammed the cards down in the middle of the table.  
  
“Show me.”  
  
Nodding, Marinette pulled two cards from the top of the deck and laid them down next to each other. “This is you and this is your goal,” she explained. She laid a third card down horizontally across the first two. “And this is your roadblock. It’s a situation that’s keeping you from your goal. I want you to concentrate on this card for a moment, your lack of progress, as I lay down the last two cards.”  
  
More mumbo-jumbo, but Gabriel couldn’t help but do as Marinette said. _How many times?_ he wondered. _How many times must I fail before I succeed?_  
  
Marinette took another card off the top of the deck and laid it down so the top half of it was on top of the roadblock card. “This is what’s holding you back. See how it’s on top of your roadblock? It is keeping it in place.” She took a fifth card and put it above the last card, so the bottom half of it was on top of the roadblock. “And this is how you move forward. See how it’s symbolically placed above the previous card and closer to me? Think of it as a step forward. A step in the right direction.” She tapped the deck against the side of the table and then put it away. “And that’s the Roadblock Reading.”  
  
Gabriel leaned back and crossed his arms. He’d be interested to see what a non-magical deck could tell him. “Let’s see that first card,” he said. “The one that represents me.”  
  
The girl nodded and turned over the Five of Swords. In it, there were three men. One appeared to be crying, one was walking away, and the third had a smirk on his face as he picked up fallen swords.  
  
Gabriel stiffened. He watched as Marinette gapped like a fish, nervously glanced up at him and then back down at the card. They both knew what it meant, and it wasn’t a flattering picture.  
  
“Go on, now,” Madam Magda encouraged Marinette, apparently not reading the room. “Take it piece by piece.”  
  
Marinette swallowed. “Well…the Five of Swords could mean many things. Since Position 1 is about the self, that does help narrow it down a bit though. It’s mostly likely referring to _self_ -interest, which makes sense. This project of yours benefits you, which is why it is so important.”  
  
“I would not be the only one who would benefit,” Gabriel insisted. He wouldn’t just gain his wife back, but Adrien his beloved mother.  
  
“Of course,” said Madame Magda, jumping in. “When we view our self as our personality and our body, our interests become those _related_ to that self. We don’t exist in a vacuum, after all. Most of us have loved ones. Relationships. We expand our concern to those we are closest to because what affects us affects them and vis versa. The Five of Swords’ self-interest can be as narrow as the self or as wide as the world. It all depends on the person.”  
  
“I know you’re a pretty, um…solitary man,” noted Marinette, voice quavering a bit. “But Adrien is important to you. He is part of your self-interest. I’m assuming he’s the one who would also benefit from your project…?”  
  
Gabriel nodded, and the girl positively lit up.  
  
“That’s great! I would do anything to help Adrien!” she said before rethinking her words. It was too late though. They were already out. “Er, and, um, you too, Mr. Agreste.”  
  
He looked at her impassively. He suspected Marinette harbored feelings for his son, as many girls did. They were distractions he didn’t want Adrien getting involved with, even though he appreciated Marinette’s talents.  
  
“But what of other readings of the Five of Swords?” asked Madame Magda, turning to Marinette.  
  
The girl paled. “Madame Magda…!” she hissed, but the woman did not appear to be bothered.  
  
“As a tarot reader, it’s important to give all possible options, darling. Even if some are less rosy than others.” She turned her gaze to Gabriel. “The Five of Sword could also represent your hostile nature, or maybe even dishonorable actions you have committed. Either way, the Five of Swords comes with a warning. If you hurt others in the process of achieving your goal, your victory will be hollow.”  
  
Gabriel squinted at Madame Magda. He knew he shouldn’t have returned here. He couldn’t tell if she knew more than what she was letting on, but that was beside the point. The problem was he couldn’t control her. Worse, she was controlling him with Marinette’s very presence. He had to toe the line with the girl around.  
  
“What does the next card say?” he asked Marinette, though his eyes never left Madame Magda.  
  
“Ah! Right…” The girl sheepishly flipped the card. “It’s the Ace of Swords.”  
  
Gabriel turned his gaze upon the card. It showed a gloved hand gripping a sword. Floating around its tip was a crown, dripping with what looked to be seaweed.  
  
“Goals and this card have a lot in common,” Marinette reasoned. “They are both clear and precise, but a challenge to reach. Not physically challenging though. Your goal requires logic and reasoning if you ever hope to achieve it.”  
  
“And what makes you say that?”  
  
“You said it yourself, Mr. Agreste. Despite all the resources you have, you’re still not able to achieve your goal. Physical barriers aren’t the problem—mental ones are.”  
  
“Mental?” It wasn’t his mind that was keeping him from reviving Emilie, but Ladybug and Chat Noir. He crossed his arms. “You’re wrong.”  
  
The color drained from Marinette’s face. “What…? But…um…um…”  
  
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss her,” said Madame Magda breezily, coming to Marinette’s rescue. “How objective are you when it comes to your goal? If it’s something you’re extremely passionate about, I assume it must be quite difficult, maybe even impossible.”  
  
“You read things that aren’t there,” Gabriel insisted. “The Ace of Swords can also stand for seeking justice. That is my goal. I wish to right a wrong.”  
  
“Oh! Why didn’t you just say so, darling? As I always say, tarot readings are a dialogue. So, your goal has to do with justice. But not fortitude? Or the truth? You might not know everything there is to know about the situation.”  
  
“I do.”  
  
“Well, as long as you’re sure.” She gave pause and Gabriel glowered at the woman. Her words said, ‘I believe you,’ but her tone said, ‘I believe that you believe you.’ Before he could say anything though, she was already speaking to Marinette. “Why don’t we move on, darling?”  
  
“Uh. Right.” The girl bobbed her head, clearly still shaken by Gabriel’s earlier dismissal. Steeling herself though, she flipped the third and probably most important card. It was a kindly woman sitting on a stone throne, looking down lovingly at the golden circle cradled in her hands. “Your roadblock is…the Queen of Pentacles?” she said. “No, that’s not…” She attempted to pick the card up, but Madame Magda covered Marinette’s hand with her own and gave it a few pats.  
  
“Relax, darling. Why don’t you read it first?” she suggested.  
  
“But it doesn’t make any sense!” complained Marinette.  
  
Madame Magda ignored her pleasantly. “Go on. Tell me and Mr. Agreste what this card is all about.”  
  
With a frustrated huff, Marinette did as she was asked, rattling off attributes like she was reading them from a list. “The Queen of Pentacles is welcoming and nurturing. She likes to care for others by making sure they are happy and secure and is warm and generous to everyone. She’s sensible and practical. If something needs doing, she does it. She’s down-to-earth, loyal, and steadfast. Others trust her completely. If you’re hurting or in need, she will calm your fears and share your troubles.”  
  
She sounded like Emelie, if Gabriel were being completely honest, but it wasn’t possible for her to be his roadblock when she was his goal. It stood to reason that the Queen of Pentacles stood for someone or something else.  
  
“Brava!” cheered Madame Magda. “But a card’s meaning depends on multiple things.”  
  
“Yeah. Like where it is in a spread,” explained Marinette. “That’s the problem. How can the Queen of Pentacles be a roadblock? It sounds like such a positive card.”  
  
“Why don’t we ask our querent?”  
  
Marinette lifted her eyes slowly to Gabriel, fidgeting. Gabriel cut her off before she could even speak. “A good reader wouldn’t have to ask,” he challenged.  
  
“My, that’s a very passive stance,” observed Madame Magda. “Don’t you want to be a participant in your own destiny? If you allow someone else to tell you what they see with no input from you, then you aren’t getting the best reading. Tarot readers are not mind-readers, Mr. Agreste. We’re fallible. Human. If you don’t engage in the dialogue, then you leave yourself open to assumptions and generalities.” She turned back to Marinette. “Sometimes, when I find myself stuck on a certain card, I keep going with the spread and circle back to it.”  
  
“Oh!” The girl’s eyes widened. “That’s a great idea, Madame Magda. Position 4 is tied to Position 3. It might give us some clarity on the Queen of Pentacles.”  
  
“My thoughts exactly, my dear.”  
  
Marinette turned over the card closest to Gabriel. It just so happened to be another court card, this one depicting an angry knight on a white horse, rushing into battle. Gabriel flinched at the sight of it, the memory of Madame Magda offering him her deck when he visited her as Hawk Moth suddenly returning to him.  
  
_Here you are, my Knight of Swords. They’re yours._  
  
But Gabriel wasn’t the only one who flinched, he realized. Marinette had also drawn back when she saw the card. Only Madame Magda seemed unfazed.  
  
“My, how interesting!” she said as she played with one of her earrings. “Several things are at play here, aren’t they, Marinette?” Marinette gapped at the woman, unable to string two words together. Madame Magda ploughed on though as if Marinette were simply allowing Madame Magda to speak first out of a sense of politeness. “The first, of course, is the obvious—the two court cards. The tie between your roadblock and what is keeping you from removing it is apparent in the spread, but now we see it reflected in the cards as well!”  
  
“R-right,” said Marinette, trying her best to pick up where Madame Magda left off. “A Queen/Knight pair is an interesting combo. There can be a lot of disconnect between the two. The Queen is not about taking chances. She values security and stability while the Knight is more prone to risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Yet the Knight is sworn to protect the Queen.”  
  
“He is…beholden to her,” said Gabriel, growing thoughtful.  
  
“Exactly! It can be hard to break away from a Queen. She has the power in the relationship. And then there’s the fact that she’s a Pentacle. Pentacles are grounded compared to Swords. I can see now how a Pentacle’s practicality could bring a Sword down because Swords deal in abstracts, in ideas and ideals.”  
  
“And, lest we forget, Mr. Agreste’s goal is a Sword,” noted Madame Magda. “The Ace of Swords.”  
  
“Yeah! That’s another tie. The Queen of Pentacles is your roadblock because whoever or whatever she represents does not share your goal. If she did, she would be a Sword as well. Which means…hm. Maybe she isn’t as trustworthy as she first appears. Maybe…the Queen of Pentacles is an illusion.”  
  
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.  
  
Miss Rossi.  
  
Now that he thought about it, the Queen of Pentacles was everything Miss Rossi pretended to be—warm, understanding, loyal. It was absolutely true she did not share in Gabriel’s goal, even if she knew what it was. The only one Miss Rossi cared about was herself. The help she gave him was self-serving—practical, in a way. She only did it to increase her time with Adrien, to maintain the security and stability of her fame and power. And the only thing keeping him from removing her was…himself. The Knight of Swords.  
  
“The last card,” demanded Gabriel. “What is it?”  
  
Obediently, Marinette flipped the last card over, the one closest to her. Eight goblets were stacked up in the foreground of the picture. Behind them, a man in red with a staff was walking away beneath the glow of an uncaring moon.  
  
“Oh! This is easy!” said the girl brightly. “The Eight of Cups tells us the easiest way for you to move past your roadblock is to simply move on. You’re probably growing weary of the Queen of Pentacles. She’s not providing you with the deeper meaning you seek. Er…Does that sound about right?”  
  
Gabriel almost smiled. “Impressive,” he said. He was starting to understand now.  
  
“Ah, see?” said Madame Magda with a chortle. “What did I tell you? Marinette is an excellent reader!”  
  
Gabriel wouldn’t go that far. It was obvious she would’ve floundered without Madame Magda’s assistance. Still, her reading wasn’t without merit. “She definitely shows promise,” he said tactfully. “Just like she does with her design work.”  
  
But that her reading had merit showed him the problem. If he could gain insight from cards that weren’t always right, why was he wasting his time with a deck that was? It was clear to him now that he had been relying on the cards too much. There was a chance they were his actual roadblock, and if he continued to look to them instead of to himself for answers, he was never going to achieve his goal.  
  
He stood. “I will not take up anymore of your time, ladies. I have an appointment I need to keep. Good night.”

He left Voyance in a hurry, his anger with himself growing. He was beholden to no one, least of all Miss Rossi and a deck of magical cards. They both certainly had their uses but telling him how to defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir was not one of them. They were crutches. They were holding him back.  
  
It was high time he made a change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: Repeating Card Tarot Spread
> 
> https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/learn-tarot-with-labyrinthos-academy/repeating-tarot-cards-and-how-to-interpret-them-a-tarot-spread
> 
> Lila did this spread twice, once with the fake deck (which we saw in story) and once with the non-linear deck in order to prepare for her reading with Gabriel. The cards she got were as follows and obviously colored her reading:
> 
> 1 – Repeating Card – The Magician  
> 2 – What Blocks Me from Understanding? – The Moon  
> 3 – How to Unblock and Progress – The Hermit  
> 4 – Hidden Factors – The High Priestess
> 
> Spread Used: Roadblock Reading
> 
> https://thecrackedamethyst.tumblr.com/post/114500320976/practicalwitchcraft-im-astounded-at-the


	14. Temperance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Agreste finds himself in possession of a deck of tarot cards that are never wrong. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get them to work for him. Enter Lila Rossi, who claims to be a great tarot card reader. Things spiral from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Lila is awful.
> 
> I know, I know, tell you something you DON'T know. But I haven't put Lila in a 'classroom' situation in this story yet and, oh boy, here it comes. Prepare to be enraged. (Also, even though the cards were drawn at random for the spread again, it turned out pretty good!) (Also, also, I am IN LOVE with this spread. It's just so good and cathartic.) 
> 
> Shoutout this time goes to...StardustClearwater! I'm such a sucker for a comment and a pretty icon ^_^ The Tower is coming up, but Judgement is sure to be the climax. It's really fun tying the chapters to the Major Arcana. See if you can find the ties to Temperance in this chapter and, as always, thanks for reading!

Alya was recapping the latest issue of _Majestia_ , but Marinette was hardly listening as she nodded along and stared at the door. The instant she saw a flash of Adrien’s blonde hair, she jumped to her feet. Excusing herself from her best friend, she headed towards him. His eyes fell on her and soon he was rushing across the blacktop in her direction too. They met each other in the middle of the basketball court.  
  
“I gave your dad a tarot reading!” Marinette told him.  
  
“My father fired Lila!” he said at the same time.  
  
Marinette drew back, blinking. “Wait…what?”  
  
“You gave my father a reading?" reiterated Adrien. "Of course! It all makes sense now. Our plan. It worked!”  
  
Marinette felt a little dizzy. In the aftermath of Mr. Agreste’s reading, she had berated herself for her poor reading, but Madame Magda had told her she was being too hard on herself. She had tried her best in a stressful situation with a difficult querent, and Madame Magda couldn’t be prouder. Even with the woman’s encouragement though, Marinette felt sure she had failed. To hear from Adrien that the opposite was true threw her for a loop.  
  
“But…” Marinette began to argue, only to see Lila enter the building over Adrien’s shoulder. “Lila. Six o’clock,” she hissed.  
  
Adrien seemed tempted to look as he turned his head a little. “What’s she doing?”  
  
Lila locked on to the two of them like a homing missile. Luckily, before she could take a single step in their direction, she was accosted by Alix and a reluctant Nathaniel. She tried to brush them off, but whatever Alix wanted, she was insistent about it and dragged Lila away. Nathaniel followed.  
  
“She’s going with Alix and Nathaniel to the art room,” reported Marinette.  
  
The tension Adrien had been holding in his shoulders released and he slumped forward before remembering himself and straightening again. “Good. Because I want to hear about this reading.” He nodded toward an open bench. Marinette glanced at the clock. They had about ten minutes before class started, so she might as well. They went to take a seat together.  
  
“I was having tea with Madame Magda on Saturday when your dad came in to _Voyance_ ,” Marinette began.  
  
“Really!” said Adrien. “I’m surprised. He hardly ever leaves the house if it’s not for business.”  
  
“I think it technically was for business. He said he was working on a project and had all the tools needed to complete it, but it wasn’t getting done. He wanted Madame Magda to give him a reading, but, of course, she doesn’t do that anymore and convinced him to have me do it instead.”  
  
“What did the cards say?”  
  
“Oh, well…customer confidentiality and all that. Honestly, Adrien, I thought I did a bad job, but I guess not.”  
  
The boy shook his head. “Not at all! I returned from my fencing competition yesterday to find my father telling Lila that he no longer required her services as a tarot card reader. He said he was done with readings.”  
  
“Whoa! Like…completely?”  
  
“That’s what it sounded like.”  
  
Truthfully, Marinette was relieved. For a moment there, she was worried Mr. Agreste wanted to make her his official tarot card reader. Not only did every interaction with Mr. Agreste induce anxiety in her, but, according to Adrien, Lila gave him a reading almost every day. Marinette didn’t have time for that!  
  
“How did Lila take the news?” Marinette wondered. She had to assume the girl was hopping mad with her access to Adrien getting limited and it brought her a small sense of satisfaction.  
  
“Huh? Oh, she seemed fine with it.”  
  
“What!?” That didn’t sound right. Marinette shook her head. “Are you sure she wasn’t just _pretending_ to be fine with it?”  
  
“Pretty sure. She didn’t even try to convince my father otherwise.”  
  
“That doesn’t sound like her.”  
  
“Maybe she’s turning over a new leaf.”  
  
“Or…she’s planning something.”  
  
“Marinette…”  
  
“I’m serious, Adrien! It doesn’t make any sense. Why try so hard to win our tarot competition only to be fine with giving it all up a week later? Something isn’t adding up.” She took note of their classmates heading up the stairs and stood up. “And I’m going to find out what it is.”  
  
Adrien jumped to his feet as he followed her up to their classroom. “How?” he asked, dropping his voice as he eyed Lila joining the throng with Alix and Nathaniel. She caught him looking and waved at him. He half-heartedly waved back.  
  
“I don’t know,” Marinette admitted. “But I’ll think of something.”

* * *

Marinette arrived at lunch still thinking only to find her girl squad grouped together at one table. They all sat with rapt attention as Alya regaled them with the story of Marinette’s cozy little before school chat with Adrien. Marinette had tried to set her friend straight in class, but the girl had a one-track mind sometimes. As the other girls cooed, Alix pushed her chair a little further away. Marinette decided to sit next to her.  
  
“I saw you and Nathaniel talking to Lila earlier,” said Marinette casually. “What was that about?”  
  
“Oh, we want her to model for us!” said Alix. “You know how she was Akumatized last week? She looked awesome as this death knight—I decided Nate and I should do a collab. Took forever to convince him though—you know how he is.”  
  
“Cool!”  
  
Like nails on a chalkboard, Lila’s voice cut through the air. “Is there room for one more?”  
  
“Of course!” said Mylène without a second thought, scooting over to make room for Lila’s chair.  
  
“We were just talking about Marinette and Adrien,” said Alya conspirationally.  
  
“Alya!” cried Marinette, turning pink. She turned quickly to Lila. “We were just talking tarot.”  
  
“Oh. That’s right. You practice too,” said Lila, as if she had forgotten.  
  
“Oh! Oh!” cried Rose. “Have you guys ever read each other!?”  
  
It was such an innocuous question, but Marinette’s heart still skipped a beat and then started a slow decent into her stomach. Meanwhile, Lila’s smile stretched wider, but it did not reach her eyes.  
  
“No, I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure…” said the girl, soft and sweet, as if her own words tasted like honey. “We totally should though. What do you say, Marinette?”  
  
Marinette felt like alarm bells were going off in her head. “Uh…I really don’t think—”  
  
“But it would be so much fun!” Lila insisted. “Wouldn’t it, girls?”  
  
The others cheered, and Lila smirked. She knew she had Marinette trapped. Refusing her simple request would make Marinette look like a huge jerk in front of all her friends.  
  
“We can do it right now!” Lila suggested before Marinette could find a way to wriggle out.  
  
“I…don’t have my cards with me today,” lied Marinette with a nervous giggle. “Silly me! Maybe we can read each other a different day?”  
  
“No worries, Marinette,” said Lila, reaching into her bag and pulling out two decks. She slammed them on the table just a hair harder than necessary. “I have an extra one!”  
  
Marinette wouldn’t trust a deck from Lila if her life depended on it. She quickly started to dig through her purse. If Lila wanted to play, then Marinette was going to have to be on her game.  
  
“Actually, I can’t remember now if I threw them in my purse or not…” she said as Tikki avoided her fingers, moving the deck around so it looked like she was searching for it. The Kwami eventually handed it over with an encouraging wink. “Ah! Here they are!”  
  
Now that Marinette thought about it, she did have to wonder how Lila read cards. Even if she was a liar, she was clearly good enough to impress Nathalie and Mr. Agreste. How did their styles compare? Madame Magda always said you could find out a lot about someone through tarot by how they viewed the cards. Still, if this was something Lila wanted to do, it was clearly some kind of trap. Marinette would have to be careful about how she proceeded.  
  
“Oh, perfect!” Lila said, putting her extra deck away. “Why don’t you go first?”  
  
“Me!? Um…are you sure _you_ don’t want to go first?”  
  
“Absolutely!”  
  
“C’mon, girl,” said Alya with a friendly nudge. “Show us your skills!”  
  
“Yeah, let’s see!” said Mylène.  
  
“Please, please, please, please, please?” begged Rose.  
  
“It would be like, totally cool, or whatever,” added Juleka under her breath.  
  
“You got this,” said Alix, flashing a thumbs up.  
  
But Marinette didn’t ‘got this.’ She didn’t ‘got this’ at all. She was not comfortable with the situation and desperately wanted to bail, but with her friends cheering her on, she felt like she had no choice. Besides, she was never one to back down from a fight. Lila wanted a reading? Fine. Marinette was going to give her a reading she was never going to forget.  
  
Drawing strength from deep inside, she handed her deck over.  
  
“Nervous?” wondered Lila oh-so-innocently as she began to shuffle Marinette’s cards. “Don’t worry. This is just a friendly little reading between classmates, that's all. I’ll even let you pick my spread. Whatever one you think I need.”  
  
_Oh_ , thought Marinette, _I have some choice spreads for_ you _all right_. One in particular jumped to mind, but she couldn’t say the name of it out loud in polite company. With a few modifications to its explanation though, Marinette thought it might work.  
  
“How about a relational spread?” she suggested. “You’re still kind of new here, and you were traveling the world for so long, I feel like none of us have really gotten to know you.” She paused for a moment before adding the kicker. “The _real_ you.”  
  
Lila’s mask slipped a little, but she laughed it off. “Don’t be silly, Marinette. Of course you know me! I’m an open book!”  
  
“No, she’s right,” said Alya, coming to her bestie’s defense. “Like, of course we know all about the awesome things you do, and the people you know, but…I dunno. Personally, you’re a bit of an enigma.”  
  
“Mysterious!” said Rose, fervently nodding her head in agreement with the other girls.  
  
Souring a little, Lila handed the cards back. Marinette had been watching the liar’s hands the whole time, but she hadn’t done anything suspicious. No stacking the deck. No switching in or out cards. Whatever Lila’s plan was, Marinette was still in the dark. And she didn’t like it.  
  
The spread was a simple one—six cards. Marinette pulled from the top of her deck and laid out two cards vertically, one card below them horizontally, and three more cards below that vertically again. For fun, she put the bottom three on a slight curve.  
  
“Oh!” cried Rose. “It’s a smiley face!”  
  
Marinette grinned and nodded but said nothing. _Just a friendly little reading between classmates, that's all._  
  
“This is Position 1,” she explained, tapping the smiley face’s right eye for the benefit of her friends. “This card is going to tell us who you _really_ are, Lila.”  
  
Lila squirmed a little in her seat as Marinette flipped over the card. Any card would’ve been interesting, the spread predicated on the fact that not everyone was what they seemed so Lila wouldn’t be able to weasel her way out of it, but when Marinette saw the Seven of Cups, she couldn’t help but agree. It showed a silhouette of a man. Before him floated seven goblets, each one filled with something different—a face, a figure cloaked in white, a snake, a castle, a pile of jewels, a laurel leaf crown, a dragon.  
  
“Looks complicated,” decided Alya. “What does it mean?”  
  
“The Seven of Cups is all about disorder and excess,” explained Marinette. “Sometimes that’s a good thing. It shakes things up. Provides a creative atmosphere. Gives us a lot of options. But it can get out of hand really fast, trust me.”  
  
“You got me!” said Lila. “My room at home is an absolute mess, but…it’s just so difficult to keep it clean with everything I do…You guys must think I’m so lazy!”  
  
“No, we don’t, Lila!” insisted Mylène. “We know you’re trying your best. You have nothing to be ashamed about!”  
  
“From what you’ve told us, it sounds like your life it very chaotic,” acknowledged Marinette delicately. “You’ve got a busy schedule full of hobbies and travel and volunteer work, not to mention some health issues. If you’re not careful, that chaos can lead to some pretty harmful patterns, like addiction and self-indulgence.”  
  
“Marinette!” cried Lila, placing a hand over her heart (and probably crossing her fingers behind her back at the same time). “I would never! I am always about putting others first, and the only thing I’m addicted to is doing good deeds.”  
  
_Lies_ , thought Marinette. _You’re addicted to lies._ But she persevered. “I would never say never, especially since you and I both know the Seven of Cups can also stand for wishful thinking. You could be kidding yourself about the facts. Maybe you _think_ you’re addicted to doing good deeds, but you’re actually addicted to the praise that comes with them.”  
  
“But I’m not! I do a ton of good deeds without ever telling a single soul. Why are you being so judgmental and mean to me?”  
  
“Marinette is just making suggestions and talking about hypotheticals,” reasoned Alya. “I mean, the Seven of Cups does sound a lot like you, Lila. Your life is pretty disordered and changes on the reg. One minute, you’re in Achu, the next, you’re flying to Milan for Fashion Week. It just might take its toll on you, is all she’s saying.”  
  
“Yeah. Another harmful pattern of the Seven of Cups is neglecting your health. Like when you rescued Jagged Stone’s kitten at the cost of bursting your eardrum.”  
  
“Are you saying I should’ve let that kitten die!?”  
  
“I’m saying you need to be more careful, Lila, or your actions might be your own undoing.”  
  
Lila’s eyes narrowed, but she said nothing further. Point one for Marinette!  
  
Satisfied, Marinette continued to the next card, the other eye of the smiley face.  
  
“This is Position 2,” she explained. “While Position 1 was all about who you really are, Position 2 will show us why you might hide that truth from others.”  
  
“But I told you before,” said Lila, lower lip quivering. “I’m not hiding anything.”  
  
“Maybe not intentionally,” said Alya as she leaned forward in preparation of getting a good look at the next card. “What is it, Marinette?”  
  
Marinette was more than happy to appease her friend’s curiosity. Flipping the card revealed an odd-looking man with a face of stone, holding up two fingers on one hand and a scepter in the other. He was resplendent in a three-tiered crown and a red cassock. At his feet were a pair of keys and two men.  
  
“Oh, I know this card!” said Alya. “This is the Hierophant. It means, like, groups, right?”  
  
“Totally,” said Marinette. “But it’s a lot more than that. The Hierophant is like a wise teacher or ruler. They can stand for education or a belief system—you know, any part of a society that requires order. They rely on rules, just like the Emperor. And the Emperor just so happens to oppose the Seven of Cups.”  
  
“Ooooooo!” said Rose, her eyes widening.  
  
“That’s a bit of a reach, Marinette,” said Lila quickly. “We’re talking about the Hierophant, not the Emperor. The Hierophant doesn’t oppose the Seven of Cups at all.”  
  
“That’s true,” agreed Marinette. “But it’s hard not to draw the comparison between the chaos of the Seven of Cups and the order of the Hierophant. Take your messy room, for instance. You hid that from us.”  
  
“I wasn’t trying to hide anything! It just never came up.”  
  
“I get that, but you did seem to think we would judge you for it. And another thing the Hierophant represents is conforming and fitting in.”  
  
“Oh, I get it!” cried Alix. “Yeah! You’re hiding things from us because you want us to like you!”  
  
Lila colored a little.  
  
“Hey, girl, no need for that,” insisted Alya. “You should just be yourself. We like you just the way you are.”  
  
“I am myself!” Lila insisted. “And that fact that Marinette is insinuating otherwise is really hurtful. Why would I hide anything from you guys? You’re all my friends.”  
  
“Like I said before, you’re probably doing it unconsciously. I think we all gotta little Hierophant inside of us.”  
  
The other girls murmured their agreement.  
  
“Why don’t we move on?” suggested Marinette. “The next card will tell us about the mask you hide behind.” She locked eyes with Lila. “Basically, how do you obscure the Seven of Cups?”  
  
“I already told you, Marinette—”  
  
Turning over the ‘nose’ of the smiley face revealed a man using an oar to push along a canoe. Huddled in the bow of the boat was a woman and a child, along with a lot of upright swords.  
  
“The Six of Swords!” Marinette announced. “I think this makes a lot of sense. One thing the card represents is traveling, and you certainly do that a lot, now don’t you?”  
  
“Then how is that a mask?” Lila challenged.  
  
Marinette knew she had to tread carefully here. She could not outright accuse Lila of pretending to be a jetsetter, distracting and entrancing others with lies about her adventures around the world. So, she settled on what was essentially the truth.  
  
“It was like I was saying earlier—we don’t really know you because you’re a new student from Italy—travel—and you haven’t really been around because you’ve been in Achu—again, traveling.”  
  
“I feel ya, girl,” Alya told Lila. “I was the new girl once too and it’s totally nerve-racking. So many unknowns. Are you going to make friends? Are you going to be behind in class? You’re not really yourself when you start at a new school because you’re trying to feel everyone out and see who its safe to be yourself around. I’m sure your life is a lot more chaotic than you’re letting on, but we’re here for you, Lila. Girl squad is in it for the long haul.”  
  
“Yeah!” cheered Rose.  
  
“Absolutely,” said Mylène.  
  
“Omigosh,” said Lila, taking Alya’s hand in hers. “That means so much to me. You have no idea!”  
  
Marinette struggled and failed to refrain from rolling her eyes. Luckily, no one noticed. “There are other possible masks, you know,” she complained. “The Six of Swords can also stand for sadness or recovery. But you would _never_ use fake tears or injuries to elicit sympathy, would you, Lila?”  
  
Lila’s eyes flashed. Marinette had to admit, she was having a little fun at the liar’s expense. It was unfortunate that the girl had been able to fool all her friends, but she didn’t fool Marinette. Maybe Marinette should’ve known better than to poke a sleeping bear though.  
  
“You’re the only one who thinks I do that,” Lila pointed out. “Remember when you didn’t believe that I sprained my wrist? Or had tinnitus? Not to mention how dismissive you’ve been of my rare disease…”  
  
“Oh! Yes! That’s right!” said Rose. “How are you coping, Lila? It must be so terrible…not being able to control the things you say sometimes…!”  
  
“Some days are better than others,” said Lila wistfully. “I guess that’s another thing I’ve been hiding. So few people understand what’s wrong with me…” Her eyes flickered accusingly in Marinette’s direction. “Much less accept it.”  
  
“Then it must be the ‘new girl’ travel thing,” said Marinette quickly, realizing her mistake and putting her hand on the edge of the smiley face’s mouth as if it could shield her. There was a time and place to confront Lila, and, right now, while giving the girl a tarot reading, was not that time and not that place. “Let’s go on to Position 4," Marinette continued. "This card will tell us how hiding things from others affects your relationships.”  
  
Flipping the card revealed a knight on the back of a rearing chestnut horse. He wielded a stick and wore a tattered yellow tunic over his armor. Marinette couldn’t help but associate this card with Chat Noir since it was the one Madame Magda gave him: The Knight of Wands.

“Ooooo!” said Rose, swooning onto a smiling Juleka. “A knight! How romantic!”  
  
“Knights are always really interesting cards,” noted Marinette. “Each one has two faces.”  
  
“You mean positive and negative aspects, right?” said Lila before the term 'two-faced' could be any way associated with her. “You could say that about any tarot card.”  
  
“Right. But knights are known for it. Their energy is very volatile, and it can go one way or another. The Knight of Wands’ confident, passionate style is in play here, but is it helping you or hurting you, Lila?”  
  
“Confidence and passion are never bad things, Marinette.”  
  
“Confidence is great when it gives you courage or assurance, but what about when it makes you cocky or start to exaggerate? Same with passion. It’s great when you care about something and are willing to take a stand, but it can also lead to anger and cause you to lash out at others.”  
  
Forcing her eyes to fill with tears, Lila looked around at the other girls. “Have I ever lashed out at anyone? Ever? Because if I have…”  
  
“Marinette…” warned Alya. “I know that’s what the card says, but Lila’s right. I’ve never heard her raise her voice or seen her get angry with anyone ever.”  
  
_That’s because she does it behind closed doors_ , thought Marinette bitterly, but knew she was barking up the wrong tree.  
  
“Oh, I didn’t mean ‘you’ you!” she said instead. “Um. Sort of a…general you. You told me confidence and passion are never bad things, and I just wanted to point out that they can be, if taken too far. Like what the Seven of Cups was saying! Think of it as a warning. Confidence, for example, is great when you’re starting at a new school where no one knows you, but if you ‘fake it ‘til you make it,’ you might be lying to potential new friends, maybe without even realizing it. That would certainly affect your relationships. You are charming, Lila, but I would _hate_ to find out if you were superficial.”  
  
“How can you think so little of me, Marinette?” wondered Lila, continuing her wounded gazelle gambit. “I’m the furthest thing from superficial!”  
  
“I’m just saying that I would be hurt if you lied to me. I didn’t say you’re lying.”  
  
“It’s implied.”  
  
Marinette sighed. “No one is perfect, Lila. All our traits are double-edged swords. Take, um, my imagination for instance! It’s great when it comes to my design work, but…uh, it can be a little…overactive sometimes.”  
  
“A little?” said Ayla, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“Or a lot,” Marinette conceded with a grimace. The number of times she had built up crazy, imaginary scenarios in her head was more than she’d like to admit.  
  
“I get what she’s saying,” Alya told Lila. “It’s like how I am with my journalism. I gotta fact-check everything. I’m really thorough. Which is great! But I also know I can get a little…”  
  
“Obsessive?” offered Alix, flicking a balled up straw wrapper at Kim sitting one table over. It fell way short.  
  
Alya scowled, but said nothing, mostly because she knew Alix was right.  
  
“I think the point is, there’s a lot of awesome stuff about you, Lila,” said Mylène. “But there’s probably some not-so-awesome stuff about you too. If you pretend that isn’t true, I can see how that would be a problem.”  
  
“Of course I’m not perfect,” insisted Lila. “I never claimed to be. I certainly have my faults. I’m not book smart, for one. I’ve been getting poor marks since I got here.”  
  
“Oh, Lila, that’s not your fault,” comforted Alya. “You’re just behind because you’ve been traveling.”  
  
“N-no! You want to know the truth? I really am stupid!” Lila burst into tears like she was in a soap opera and buried her head in her hands, attracting attention from the rest of the lunchroom. “There! I said it!” she said, careful not to muffle her voice so everyone could hear. “Are you happy, Marinette!?”  
  
It was like looking both ways to cross the street only to get hit with a brick from above. “Huh!?” cried Marinette, bewildered. “I never—”  
  
“We’ve gone through this, Marinette,” hissed Alya while Rose, Juleka, and Mylène comforted Lila. “I know you’re jealous of Lila because of all the time she gets to spend with Adrien, but there’s no reason to be mean to her.”  
  
“I wasn’t insulting Lila’s intelligence!” Marinette insisted. “We all know she’s not doing well at school.”  
  
“Wow. Um, harsh much?”  
  
“This whole spread has been about her hiding things. She’s never hid her bad grades from us at all. In fact, she’s been very open about needing help.” _Too open_ , Marinette realized. Lila was probably incredibly smart but was playing the part of a struggling student to elicit sympathy and get closer to Adrien since he was one of the smartest students in their class.  
  
“That’s true…” acknowledged Alya slowly.  
  
_Lila’s trying to distract everyone_ , thought Marinette, but she didn’t dare share this thought with her bestie.  
  
“Hey, what’s going on?”  
  
Marinette looked up to find Adrien standing next to her, Max and Kim along with him.  
  
Max adjusted his glasses. “It appears there is a tarot reading in progress,” he observed.  
  
“Oh, man…did you get Death or something, Lila?” wondered Kim.  
  
“It’s all a misunderstanding,” said Alya. “Marinette didn’t mean to make you upset, Lila. She’s just trying to read the cards. Card 1 tells us your life is crazy. Card 2, that you want to fit in here to school. Card 3, that you are using your status as the new girl to keep us from getting to know the real you. And Card 4 has nothing to do with your grades—I think it’s about our confusion. You do fit in. We accept you—the positive and the negative—but you haven’t really let anyone in. How come?”  
  
“It’s j-just so h-hard…” said Lila, pulling her hands away and sniffling. “None of you know what it’s like, to be me. It’s not all celebrities and trips to foreign countries! It’s hard work and I’m under so much stress…”  
  
Marinette wanted to scream. There was no winning against this girl! She was the victim, always the victim. The moment you tried to hold up a mirror to her, she’d try to convince those around her that her reflection didn’t exist. It was insane. Marinette managed to bite back on her incredulity though with a knowing look from Adrien and pressed on.  
  
“Well, maybe the last two cards can help,” she said. “It’s advice, and the outcome if you follow that advice.”  
  
“Hey, look at that, Lila!” said Adrien brightly. “Can’t hurt, right?”  
  
Lila searched Adrien’s face, her tears drying instantly because they weren’t even real in the first place, but whatever she was looking for, she could not find.  
  
“Please be kind to me, Marinette,” she said, though her eyes never left Adrien.  
  
“I’m only reading what the cards say,” reasoned Marinette as she flipped the one in Positive 5. It depicted a noble lady in a lush garden. Perched on her hand was a falcon. She rested her other hand on a stack of golden circles. “This is the Nine of Pentacles,” Marinette explained. “It opposes the Seven of Cups.” She wiggled the first card. “Which helps us narrow down what it means—discipline, restraint, refinement. Your life is chaotic, Lila. There is no denying that. It’s caused you to fall behind in school and it’s stressing you out! But if you do stuff like exercise self-control and rein in your worst impulses, it could really help.”  
  
“But isn’t the Seven of Cups who I _really_ am?” challenged Lila. “Are you saying you want me to change?”  
  
“N-no, I—”  
  
“This is exactly why I’ve been afraid to let people in. Because, what if they think I’m not good enough? Like Marinette?”  
  
“I never—”  
  
“It’s just advice, Lila,” said Adrien, smoothly coming to Marinette’s rescue. “You don’t have to listen to it if you don’t want to. You can stay the same. But then…things will stay the same too. You just said how hard your life is. Don’t you want things to get easier?”  
  
Marinette flipped over the last card, hoping for something that would dig her out of her precarious situation. Lila seemed determined to make Marinette out to be a bully when the opposite was true. Relief flooded her when she saw the man leaning on his hoe, admiring a bush full of pentacles.  
  
“Look!” she cried. “See? Here. This is the Seven of Pentacles. If you let the Nine of Pentacles be your guide, you’ll reap the rewards! Look at how much gold the guy in the picture grew. Things will change—the Seven of Pentacles means questioning your previous choices and deciding to go a different way—but it can only be for the better.”  
  
Honestly, Marinette didn’t even know why she was still trying to reach out to Lila. The girl had shown time and time again that she was incapable of change, that she reveled in her lies and took offense to anyone who suggested she live differently. It was like she had a chip on her shoulder about the moral high ground. And yet…Marinette wanted to hope.  
  
“I see,” said Lila slowly as she scanned the cards. She looked up and smiled. “You’re a very good reader, Marinette.”  
  
“Um.” Marinette was so shocked, she found herself at a loss for words. Maybe Adrien was right. Maybe Lila was turning over a new leaf. “Thanks?” she said, blushing a little as she scratched the side of her head.  
  
Lila eyes narrowed into slits as she slammed her hand down on her deck of cards, her next words like a stab in the back.  
  
“ _My turn_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spread Used: What the Hell is Your Deal? Tarot Spread
> 
> https://tarotgram.tumblr.com/post/57380436096/hey-its-sunday-have-a-spread-spread


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